What the Bad Friends trio does on Fridays
by Hetaliawall
Summary: What exactly does the trio that is France, Spain and Prussia do every Friday? It couldn't be that they volunteer at a local orphanage right? Right? ((Rated K for slight action later on and possible overdose of adorable.))
1. Chapter 1

The world conference meeting was just as boring as always, every nation was yelling at the top of their lungs to put their own point across; everyone was talking over each other. It was like being in a room full of small children, all fighting over the same toy, and he would know something about that. Francis couldn't wait to get out of this stuffy conference, and he could tell that his friends were feeling the same. From the twitch of their hands to the tapping of their feet they were all relaying the same impatient message. It was Friday, and the self-dubbed Bad Friends Trio had a mission, like they always did every Friday. As soon as the dull meeting was over the trio would leap out of their seats and make their way to the streets, and when the last speaker had finally shut up that was just what they did, to the murmuring of the other nations that remained behind to gather papers and other nuisances.

"There they go…"

"Probably going to go get drunk…"

"Or worse."  
Francis turned to the rude nation that said this and sent a friendly kiss in their direction, he loved seeing "haters" faces when he did that. (He was fairly certain that was the term, his dear ex-colony Matthew told him about new slang often to keep him from using terms like "groovy" still, a term he used well into the eighties.) He didn't really care what the other nations thought of them, this was their day, and no one could damper his mood.

"So are you two ready to be _awesome_?"

Francis chuckles and nods along with Antonio as they walked to the hotel for the things that they would need for this "mission".

"Si! Hurry it up!"

The trio collected some things from their hotels and drove through the packed streets of Paris fidgeting with excitement until they reached their highly anticipated destination.

Their highly anticipated destination was a small run down orphanage in the heart of the city. The orphanage was a sick shade of yellow with the paint peeling off, but it was kept as clean as was possible by the little girls that stayed within its walls, their ages ranging from toddlers to some younger teens. The privately owned orphanage had seen some better years, but the elderly woman who ran it was desperate to keep it afloat, she couldn't bear the thought of any of her "little girls" getting separated from each other. They were more of a family after all.

The trio had first found this place when walking to their hotels after their carpool car had broken down and Gilbert was too proud to hail a cab, Francis remembered that conversation distinctly. " _Nein I am_ _too awesome to get inside a stinky cab, we will walk!"…_ He had been pissed beyond belief at the many mile trek that they had to endure on Gilberts behalf, but that all changed when they saw the orphanage, they had originally thought that it was a ruin but on that first Friday the girls at the all-girls _Mrs. Jeaunes Orphanage for special ladies_ had swarmed the trio at the gate, as if they had never seen any adults before. It was like a small herd of bright grinning pigtails and skirts and even though the girls lived in such a rundown place they were the happiest girls they had ever seen, and all of them wanted to play with the new adults, despite the fact that said adults hadn't even stepped foot within the gate. The trio had spent that first Friday playing games with the charming girls (how could they say no?) and when it came time to leave the girls held them hostage by latching onto their legs until they made a promise that they would be back.

So the trio kept coming back.

This Friday was no exception to the herd rule for as soon as the trio stepped out of their car one small girl about the age of five saw them and sounded the alarm.

"THEY'RE HERE!"  
As soon as the trio reached the gate they were surrounded by a sea of bright shining faces all eagerly shouting the news from the last week since they had last seen the trio. The more introverted girls stood in the back, but managed to make their voices heard since all of them were comfortable with the trio by this point.

"I lost a tooth!"

"I made an A on my history quiz!"

"I drew you a picture of a dog we found!"

The trio smiled and hugged the girls that were all asking for hugs, and did their best to answer to the girl's news that kept on being shouted to them. While it was all chaos, they loved it. For all of them it reminded them of when they used to take care of their little brothers, and they reviled in the delightful chaos that children brought.

By the end of it all Antonio ended up with two girls latched onto his legs like leeches, Gilbert had one in his arms and Francis was happily holding one in his arms and one on his back. When things had finally calmed down a little more the last girl approached them as usual, her being one of the shyest out of the bunch. She handed them a note with her news and waited until they had all read it. The note had been written by an older girl since Eloise was not able to write yet, or at least she was working on it as the note stated.

"Ah I see mon petite chou, very nice job on your writing then Eloise!"

The girl nods mutely but with a smile as she then tugs on Francis's free arm for dress up time. With that the trio was off, pulling out their own separate bags of toys so they could visit and play games with the girls.

 _Gilberts POV_

After helping with science and history homework for the older girls (his specialty, all the girls were making A's with his awesome help) Gilbert had finally gotten a chance to search for the other parts of the awesome trio. Last he had seen of Antonio he was playing guitar with the little ones and teaching them how to dance, but he hadn't seen Francis for a while now, that left him to assume that some of the little ones had kidnapped him and were forcing to play unspeakable games like dress up and having a tea party where he would mostly be made to wear a feathery scarf and a plastic tiara….He had to find him and rescue him from such an unawesome fate.

"Francis? Where you at?"

"Ahem….In here…."

Gilbert quirked an eyebrow and enters a bedroom through the pink doorway. What he saw inside would remain with him until he died, and would be going into his diary for sure. Inside was Francis, surrounded by the youngest girls, but that wasn't the best part. The best part was _him._ Francis had been decked up with costume makeup, his nails were painted , his hair was in pigtails with pink bows, and the girls had somehow found a dress big enough for him (more than likely snagged from cabinet from her Cabaret days..) …..He looked like a very cheap impression of a drag queen, and Gilberts prediction was true.

"Ahem….so….Am I pretty mon ami?"

As Francis played with his short pigtails; a wide smile on his face, Gilbert fell over clutching his own stomach as he bellowed with laughter.

"Yah sure bro! You're the prettiest girl! Why don't you give me a twirl so I can see that pretty dress of yours sway! "

Francis nods slyly to one of the girls as they shut the door and smiles a wicked grin.

"I'm glad you think so, you can be pretty like me now, and then we can both sway in our pretty dresses…."

"What….No…Girls….NOT AWESOME!"

Gilbert's pleas went unheard as an army of girls armed with hair bows surrounded him….

 _Antonio's POV_

He honestly had no clue.

Just….No clue…

"Err….Amigo…. I can understand Francis being in a dress but…."

"DON'T SPEAK OF IT!"

Antonio holds his hands up, ever the peacemaker. However….He couldn't hold back a smile, or stop the girls that were behind him from giggling. His friends just looked so silly in their makeup, and pink/red frilly dresses. Francis was posing like a model for the girls while Gilbert was hiding his face behind his hands, which were freshly painted in sparkly pink nail polish. The little ones could be very strong when they had to paint nails forcefully.

"Ah, cheer up mon ami! You look very pretty in that dress, red suits you!"

Francis could only laugh as Gilbert gave him a glare.

"…Not a word francy pants…."

However, coming from a man in a pink dress that threat did not hold much, and only made everyone else laugh harder. Finally Eloise took pity on Gilbert and bashfully handed him some makeup wipes. Her bright green eyes lit up as she smiled up at him as she pointed to her own red hair and his red dress, pointing out that they were practically the same shade.

"Ah! Finally a _true_ friend! Eloise you are my new best friend, ok? And this dress would look much better on you, it's like your awesome fiery hair."

Eloise only smiles and nods, then points to Antonio and Francis who were still red with laughter.  
"Nein, those are not my friends anymore….Unless they want to buy me some adult drinks later at the bar!"

Francis laughs his typical laugh and nods, taking off his own makeup as well, his makeup already streaking down his face from the tears until he finally got it all off.  
"Oui, I think the sight of you in a dress is worth the price of an adult drink."

Gilbert finally lets out a laugh as he sits down to let his new best friend help him with taking out the hair bows.

"Nice! I guess this was worth it then….Girls did you enjoy dressing us up?"

All around them a chorus of "yes" went around and Gilbert sighs.

"Hmmm…..Next week I expect to see Francis in a blue dress, something to match his eyes!"

The girls around them laughed as Eloise silently points to his red eyes, and then to some red nail polish.

"W-What?! Eloise! You're supposed to be my new best friend! Ah I feel so betrayed!"

Gilbert flops over onto the floor with a dramatic flair.  
"And just when I was about to let you all pet Gilbird….."

The girls gasped and then surrounded him, all begging to see the little bird, the dresses forgotten, but only for the moment. They would reappear next week; they could be assured of that. Francis took this as a chance to go and get changed out of the dress; he was looking a bit short of breath as it was squeezing his innards like a corset. Antonio also took this chance to slink away to the kitchen to make dinner for the girls; it was his turn this week after all.

 _Gilberts POV_

Well that worked.

The little girls that surrounded him soon forgot about making him wear _another_ dress (he hoped) as he whistled for his little bird friend. Gilbird came quickly as he always did and soon the little girls were petting him and trying to put him into tiny little hats that they had made for him in the past few weeks. His bird was a brave little guy who underwent all of this and even floated around on the girl's heads, making them all laugh with his antics. Although why that was so funny Gilbert had no idea, this bunch of girls were always giggling about something it seemed…..It was actually really adorable, and this was coming from him, one of the _manliest_ men alive!

The girls were just about to make Gilbird wear a tiny tie when Antonio finally reappeared in the doorway.  
"Dinner is ready!"

What could only be described as a mob flocked to the dinner table leaving the trio wide eyed, as it always did. Antonio was the first to recover as his face lights up with that joyful smile that he was famous for.  
"…Well at least someone appreciates my cooking!"

Antonio brimmed with pride as they went to the table joined by the owner of the orphanage who had finally made it out of bed. Mrs. Jeaune was mostly confined to it due to her arthritis and the older girls usually had to watch the younger ones. Today she looked a little red eyed as she smiled at the trio.  
"Ah it's so nice to see you boys here again!...Young ladies what do we say for this wonderful meal?"

The girls turned to the trip and chorused a polite yet loud "thank you."

Antonio beamed as he watched the girls squirm in their seats, waiting eagerly so they could eat.  
"You're welcome…You can eat now you know."

The girls didn't need any more urging as they all eagerly dug into the food, only barely managing to remain polite and eat with good table manners.

Francis's POV

The girls ate with an appetite that only young growing children could possess. It reminded him of when he had Mathieu as his little colony, it wouldn't seem like it but he had as big of an appetite as his brother.

"Oh mon petite you have rice all over your mouth!"

The culprit, a little blond girl named Marie looked up and hastily wipes her mouth, making sure to keep her special princess costume clean.  
"Oh, thank you for telling me !"

Francis chuckles softly and nods as she eats at a much more graceful pace. He gazed around the table to check on the other girls and he noticed a certain girl who was sulking at her plate.

"You are welcome….Now what is wrong Eloise?"

The small girl looked up from her sulking at him and points to her broccoli, shaking her head as she made a face.

"Ah I see, not a fan of broccoli?"

Eloise nods and then shrinks sheepishly back in her chair, not wanting to seem ungrateful.

"Hmm…Well then just pretend that it is a tree, and you are a little beaver!"

Eloise lights up at the idea of being able to play _at the table_ and eagerly dug into her veggies with her new game. Soon enough most of the younger ones had joined in on the game (much to the "embarrassment" of the older girls) and Francis gloated to Gilbert.

"That always works like a charm, I used that trick with mon petit Mathieu!"

Gilbert rolls his eyes, obviously fearing that Francis would gush again about his "little colony"…..He was honestly just as bad as Antonio when it came to that sort of thing.

"Mhm nice one fancy pants, now eat so we can have dessert!"

Francis pretended to be hurt but soon finished his plate. They had to set a good example for the young ladies after all, and that meant clearing their plates like the children. They also had to wait for everyone to clear off their plate out of politeness before Antonio pulled out a platter of churros.

"Did everyone clean off their plates?"

The girls proudly showed off their spotless plates to a beaming Spaniard.

"Good! Then you can have some dessert!"

He passed out the churros and sat down at the table once again as the girls started to chat, now that they could finally talk without full mouths. Marie looked at the trio and raised her hand as if she were at school.

"Ahem….Oui?"

"You guys are really smart so you must know! My teacher is going to have a baby but when we all asked her when it came from she wouldn't say and got all red in the face! ...So….Where do babies come from?"

The trio stared blankly, not even chewing as all of the young girls turned to them, all wide eyed with curiosity. Under the table the trio hastily played rock paper scissors, leaving the loser to make something up. That someone was Francis who quickly took note of the fact that most of the girls were not old enough to know the truth….This was going to be tricky. Despite his reputation he would explain the truth, just not to smaller children.

"Ahem, well you see…err…When a mother….Ok non not that way ahem… It's complicated girls."

The girls started to protest, urging Francis to come up with something since that would obviously not be enough for this curious bunch.

"It's complicated because…. I have been sworn to secrecy! You see when you become an adult you are entrusted with that secret, and I cannot tell you. It's for the baby's safety you see. If I were to tell you then I would be…er…turned into a fish…. "

The girls were about to pester for more info instead of such an obviously fake and honestly cringe worthy answer, one glance at his friends told him that Gilbert had slammed his head onto the table.

"A fish?"

"Oui! A fish!...Right guys?"

Francis was about to die until Antonio came to his friends rescue, some of the more gullible girls were staring at the fish dinner that was left over with horror.

"I just realized that… we have not had a tea party yet!"

The older girls thankfully took this hint and helped Antonio usher the smaller ones into the playroom where the plastic tea sets were. When they were all gone Francis heaved a sigh of relief while Gilbert just laughed at him.

"That was close…."

"I'll say! At least you didn't make up some bull-….Stuff about a crane or a stork! Although that whole fish thing was a bit lame man…And by a bit lame I mean that was pretty terrible..."

Francis merely laughs softly at his friend, knowing that he was right after all. He clears off the table, watching as Mrs. Jeaune hobbled back to her study to work on paperwork, something about her was pestering him.

"Oui well I hope they forget about that question, and that was the first thing I could think of! I blame Antonio and his fish dinner.… Gilbert don't you think this is all a bit strange?"

They could hear the little girls playing with the tea sets and probably dressing Antonio up in a feather boa as Gilbert looked at Francis armed with a rag to wash the dishes.

"What do you mean?"

Francis shrugs nonchalantly and filled the sink with sudsy water to work on the dishes.

"It just seems that this place never gets better, no matter how many donations we collect…"

"Yeah well….The girls eat a lot of food, and you know how their outfits get. That's probably why the building is still in bad shape. "

Francis thinks for a moment and then gave a light smile as he passed dishes to Gilbert to clean.

"Perhaps you are right; after all, the girls seem to have new outfits this time. That is probably where the money went."

"Yeah francy pants! Don't be so suspicious, Mrs. Jeaune loves these girls!"

"That is true. Now then, I think we have a tea party to attend to."

Francis just grinned as Gilbert straightens out his suit and then gave Gilbird a little pat.

"Let's do this."

Some fake cookies later and the day had closed to an end. They had visited and donated the next bit of money for the week which was met with many thanks as usual. The trio stuck around long enough to help the older girls wrangle the younger ones into bed and then said their goodbyes to the sleepy lot.

"You'll be back right?"

The trio stood at the door as the girls waited anxiously, despite the many times they had been through this.  
"Well mon petites….Do you promise to do your homework?"

The girls nodded eagerly, smiles' forming as they went through the usual pattern of promises and their childish anxiety was relieved.

"And to eat your veggies? Even broccoli?"

They nodded, a bit more reluctant this time. Francis was about to finish off when Gilbert cut in.

"And you promise to be _awesome_?"

The girls giggled and nodded with a resounding "yes!"

Francis could only chuckle softly as their cheerful faces.

"Then we will be back."

The girls cheered, even though they knew that the trio would be back, no matter what they did. They had charmed the trio too much for them to stay away.

 _One week later_

Another dull meeting, another Friday in the freezing bleak winter the engulfed the city. This particular meeting seemed excruciatingly long as this Friday was different from all the others. This was the day that the trio had finally gathered enough money to fix up the orphanage, for good this time. It hadn't been easy, but they had done it. They honestly couldn't wait to surprise Mrs. Jeaune with the check, and to see her face as they help her fix the home for the girls. It would be the perfect gift for the Christmas that was quickly approaching.

Arthur was about to start on another rant about global trade when the heavy doors of the meeting hall struggled open. It wasn't until they adjusted their line of sight and looked down that they saw the culprit. There in her special princess dress stood Marie, looking like she was about to cry. No one spoke as she scanned the crowd until she saw the trio.

"Mr. Francis! Mr. Antonio! Mr. Gilbert!"

Marie ran to them sobbing now as all eyes were on her. She leapt into the arms of Francis who tried to calm down her sobs, while also trying to figure out _why_ she was there, and possibly more importantly _how_. He looked at the others in his trio wondering if they knew what was going on but they looked just as clueless as he was.

"Mon petit! What are you doing here? Where is Mrs. Jeaune..."

"I- came- a-lone-! E-E-Eloise is – she's….MISSING! A-and you said that if we were ever in trouble then we could find you h-here!"

Marie sobbed again as Francis rubbed her back, now pacing with her as he tried to avoid the stares of the other nations, and also tried to keep the panic from building up in his chest. Finally it was Arthur who spoke up.

"Ahem…..Who is this...Who is Eloise?"

Francis sighs softly as he held the distraught girl close to him, as much for himself as it was for her.

"This is Marie, an orphan from _Mrs. Jeaunes Orphanage for special ladies_ …. The place that we visit every Friday…Now if you will excuse us, apparently another girl is missing…"

Alfred at that point leapt up from his seat, eager to help already, without knowing any information. Francis had to admire that about the young nation.

"Wait! Let us help! Come on this is serious! Also why didn't you tell us that you guys visit orphans every Friday? That's awesome!"

Francis smiles softly, a bit relieved. Leave it to Alfred to play the hero. And if Eloise was truly missing then they would need all the help they could get…

"Merci Alfred. And well…We wanted it to be our own secret… Now then, Marie, where did you see her last?...Why did she leave the orphanage, she knows you aren't supposed to go off on your own."

Marie looks up at the expectant and now standing nations as she swallows her tears.

"Eloise said that she wanted to talk to you guys, she had something to tell you…B-but she can't even read so she must have gotten lost because I didn't see her on the way here! A-and she's mute so she can't even ask for help! A-and she didn't want Mrs. Jeaune to know that she was leaving so that's why I came to you! She's been gone for _h-hours!_ "

Alfred looked at Marie with wide eyes, obviously realizing the gravity of this situation. Not only was she a young girl, but she was also _mute._

"She's mute...Oh crap….Ok hold on."

After getting info on what she looked like not just Alfred, but all of the nations started to make calls, pulling strings to get some help. Alfred enlisted Tony to use his alien tech to scan the area, Francis called the cops and had them send out a search party while his other trio members got ready to go look themselves. Even the nations that had absolutely no connection to the trio or the girls gathered up their coats to join in on the search.

Antonio's POV

Antonio was a nervous wreck as they entered the car. He tried to hide it, but it was impossible. Who knew what could happen to a small mute child in the streets?! At least they had plenty of help. The other Allies were taking care of the north; the Axis was taking the south. Hungary and Ukraine were watching Marie, while the last of the Germanics (the unlikely duo of Switzerland and Austria) were taking the west with the rest of the Asian group.

That left them with the east.

"Gilbert cant you drive any faster amigo?"

Gilbert sighs softly as France intensely scanned the streets beside him, riding shotgun.

"No, unless you want to drive right past her…"

"Ah…right…"

Gilbert nods as his leg jitters beside him whenever he wasn't using it. The tension in the car was thick enough to cut with a knife.

"Any sign of her francy pants?"

"Non…..Why would she leave without Mrs. Jeaune's permission?"

"I don't know, something doesn't seem right about this guys…."

Gilbert sighs softly and nods along to Antonio's idea.

"I agree. You might have been right all along francy pants…."

Antonio turns to Francis with a questioning look and soon Francis had explained his suspicions from the week prior.

"It is strange….But what else would she be spending the money on?"

Francis thinks for a moment trying to imagine sweet Mrs. Jeaunes using the money in an evil way.

"…I have no clue; she's a bit old for things like drugs…."

Gilbert gave him a look as he turns into another side street. As they drive the sky darkened with the night coming on. Soon it would be cold, freezing even.

"Yeah, we're decades old and yet we drink, your point is?"

"….Well that's a bit different Gilbert."

"All I'm saying is that it's not impossible"

"Oui maybe not but…."

Antonio sighs as he listens to their bickering, deciding to keep watch instead. What felt like an eternity went by and the arguing died down as they grew more and more solemn. It was now fully dark, and the car read a temperature of -6 C. This was not good, to put it lightly.

 _Gilberts POV_

Gilbert gripped the wheel tightly, his knuckles going white. They had all checked in with the other nations, and no one had seen her. Not even Tony's alien tech could pick her up. It was like she had fallen off the face of the earth. Gilbert finally pulls over and bangs the wheel, making the horn go off with a mighty blast that resonated through the nearly empty street.

"SHISSE!...Where is she?! It can't be this hard to find her! She's a small ginger in the middle of Paris!"

The others were silent as he sighs softly, running a hand through his own white hair.

"Where else can we look? I feel like we've been through these streets a million times…."

Francis sighs softly and looks out the window, eyeing the alleyway. They had been searching for hours now.

"We have been through all the streets in our area….The others said the same….She must have been kidnapped or is in a building. We must go out and look where the car can't go."

Gilbert heaved a sigh as he nods, grabbing his heavy coat while the others also bundled up against the bitter cold.

"If anyone has taken her I won't hesitate to shoot them…."

"You don't even have you gun amigo."

"I'll find a way!"

Antonio shrugs and they went out into the frigid streets, scanning each and every alleyway they passed. They peered into the few shops that were still open but found nothing. Gilberts hands felt like they were freezing, and his legs were about to give out after only thirty minutes.

They were just about to circle back again when they heard a trash can being knocked over. It was a slim chance but…Maybe….

"Eloise? Are you there?"

They were answered by another loud thump, and they spurred into action. The trio raced into the alleyway and instantly took up a fighting stance. A large man held Eloise by her arms and seemed to be trying to get her small pink purse which was full of thick stacks of money the poked out obviously, making her an easy target for a mugging.

Antonio growled, his eyes switched dark and menacing in an instant as he stepped towards the man. The last time Gilbert had seen him like this was during his conquistador days, and that was not a memory he wanted to relive…Except, perhaps, in times like this.

"If I were you I would back off…. _amigo_."

The man pulled out a knife and held it out as Eloise struggled, her eyes wide with fear. Despite this her grip on her purse never loosened.

"Now look, you guys are unarmed, I am. She has money, I don't. It's that simple, so just sit right there while I take the money and everything will be o-"

The man's eyes went wide and he squeaked rather high as Eloise stomped on his foot savagely. That gave them enough time for Antonio to punch the man, Francis to drag Eloise out of his arms and into safety, and then for Gilbert to knock him to the ground and stand on his chest to keep him from standing, the whole process taking less than four seconds

They were a great team.

Francis's POV

A quick call to the cops and the other nations, and a tying down of a criminal later they were ready to leave. Eloise was bundled up in Francis's large "cloak" which was really more of a blanket on her and she smiled up at them through slightly blue lips. She had been hugged, lectured and then hugged again, all in the span of only a few minutes.

"Eloise we are taking you back to the orphanage after a quick visit to the urgent care, ok?"

Eloise looks up at them with wide eyes and shakes her head frantically, pulling out a small note. The note was written in large, scribbly letters and was utterly unreadable.

"….Mon petite I cannot read this, I am sorry…We really must go-…Hmm?"

Eloise shakes her head frantically and starts to sign hastily, even though she knew that none of them could understand her.

"We will take you back to the meeting hall, ok? There we can see if anyone reads sign language."

Eloise smiles brightly now, her fear gone as she nods. Francis returns her smile and kisses her head, relief coursing through his veins.

"Don't run away again though, alright?"

Eloise merely looked up at him and gave a sheepish thumbs up.

The trio got back to their warm car and drove to the urgent care where it was found that Eloise was fine, just a bit cold and then back to the meeting hall, where many nations were waiting to see her.

"Dude you're ok!"

"Ah da, it is nice to see you ok little one."

"Her hair is so cute, right Roderich?"

Eloise looked up at the group of nations and hid her face in Francis's side, suddenly shy.

"Ah, Eloise didn't you want to tell us something?...Can anyone read sign language?"

"I can eh….."

Alfred looked at his brother stunned, even though no one else really saw anyone there.

"Wait, you can?! Why?"

"I like to give a voice to people who don't have one…."

They looked for the source of the soft voice and Francis brimmed with pride as _his_ Matthew came to the front and started to talk to the girl, reading her signs as she explained, while the rest of them looked on impressed.

"I see….Ok thank you….Here."

Matthew sent Eloise over to play and drink hot chocolate with Hungary, Ukraine and a very relieved looking Marie.

"So? What did she say?"

Mathieu sighs softly and hands Francis the small pink purse full of money.

"She says that you should have this back since Mrs. Jeaune was only using it for her 'happy juice'…Eloise saw her throw away a liquor bottle one night."

"Happy juice?!...Oh non I was right…."

Matthew nods with a small frown, looking over to where the girls were drinking hot chocolate happily and having their hair braided, as if nearly getting mugged and losing a friend was not that big of a deal…

"She said that she didn't want to tell you earlier because she was afraid that you would be mad and stop visiting them….She said that Fridays were always the best part of the week, and she couldn't risk losing that…"

"She said all of that?"

"Well….Yes, more or less anyway. I might have elaborated a bit eh?"

Francis nods and pats Matthew's shoulder with a small grin, nearly a smirk.

"Merci for translating! _Mon petit chou."_

Matthew hid his face at the French term of endearment used for _children._

"….I'm going to make hot chocolate now…."

Francis could only laugh as Matthew scurried away to join the girls and Alfred spoke up.

"So….What now guys?"

 _One month later_

The newly furnished _Nations home for orphaned girls_ was finally ready to be opened to its "clients." The girls had all stayed at various nations homes during the renovation, which led to many funny phone calls from nations who were clueless, and even some wondering if they could keep their charge for longer. Those girls had somehow found a way to charm even the coldest nation, even including Austria who insisted that his charge learn piano before she could go back to the orphanage. According to him she would be ready to play Bach in a few weeks, and that he just needed a _bit_ more time.

The girls and nations gathered in front of the house, ready now to cut the tape. They were all smiling widely as the tape was cut with a ceremonial snip and the girls rushed into the new house. Of course, the only thing that could dampen their spirits was the absence of Mrs. Jeaune who was now in a nursing home/rehabilitation center. She did love the girls, but in the end she loved her booze more.

However, they couldn't think about that now, as it was time for the tea party.


	2. Russia

_Francis's POV_

He didn't like this one bit. Of course the last child would be stuck with the _last_ nation that anyone would think of to babysit, and she was the most skittish out of them all. Of course, considering whom she was going with, that might be a good thing. That was because poor Lilly, only three years old, was going with _Russia._ But…there was no way out of it. There were no nations left over, and Russia's aura gave off the threat of injury if he was not involved with this little charity work… He did not mind the Russian all that much; they even had pleasant conversations on the occasion, but still….

Francis would be checking in often, that was for sure.

 _Ivan's POV_

Ivan stood outside of his house, a deep happiness warming his chest as he smiled at the car that was slowly approaching his house. He couldn't be more excited to be taking in a child and showing them around his nation, playing games with them, dressing them up and everything else that guardians did. The other nations seemed a bit concerned about him babysitting, and he had no idea why… Perhaps it was because he had never had a little one before? But just because he never really had a colony surely doesn't mean that he couldn't handle a child now!

"Hello Francis! Who have you brought me today?"

Ivan smiled warmly down at the tiny child who clung to Francis's leg, hiding her face in it. She must be shy, and he had to admit, he did make an imposing figure when compared to such a small and short child. Being taller than most adults did not help when he was standing over a rather petit toddler.

"Her name is Lily, she is three years old and she is a bit shy, as you can see….You know Russia, you do not have to do this I can take her in…."

Ivan shakes his head as his scarf twitched a bit, showing his split second of irritation and offence. Did they not trust him? No, that was not it. They were merely concerned that he wasn't ready for babysitting, it is a hard job after all.

"Nyet, I would not think of it. I am excited for this month, right little one?'

He looked once again down at the girl but she remained hidden behind Francis's leg, clinging onto it like a life preserver.

Francis sighs softly and nods, ushering Lily towards Ivan, which she did with much reluctance and resistance. Ivan kneeled down so he was not quite as tall and smiled at her, even though she was staring at the ground now, apparently too timid to even meet his eyes.

"Hello Lily, it is very nice to see you. We are going to have a lot of fun this month. I can show you around my country, we can play games and I might even teach you how to bake a cake! Would you like that?"

Lily's head remained down while Francis brushed past her with her bags. Only when he went to leave did she suddenly launch himself at his legs once more, refusing to let him leave. Ivan helped Francis get the small child off of his leg, with that done and Lily in Ivan's arms Francis left, this making a profound effect in the child as she slumped over like a rag doll. Once Francis's car was out of sight Ivan set her down.

The tiny child ran into the house and finally settled on the couch, crying silently as she stared intently at the ground, the only sign that she made to show that she was crying was her small shoulders shaking with each sob. Ivan could only see the very tip of her blond head as he hurried into the kitchen. There he prepared two plates with some chocolate cake and milk, and then he went into the living room and set the cake in front of her on the table, hoping that this would calm her down. After all, he had made the cake himself, and while he was not the best baker he was towards the top of the list.

"My name is Ivan, and you are Lily I'm assuming. That is a very pretty name you know. I made some chocolate cake so you are welcome to it."

Lily did not stop crying and Ivan couldn't help but feel upset. He really did love children, and never wanted to see them upset or crying, even though most would not suspect this coming from him. If he left she would possibly stop crying, but then she was only three years old and so he couldn't be far for long. He was at a loss what to do until he had an idea.

"Lily, do you like flowers and gardens?"

This caught her attention as she looked up at him mid-sob, her face red and blotchy.

"…..Yes….."

Her answer was so quiet he almost missed it, but he returned it with a large smile to encourage her hopefully good mood.

"Good! I have a large a greenhouse with many flowers, would you like to see it?"

Lily nodded silently and so together they made their way to the small greenhouse outside, leaving behind the untouched slices of cake. Within the warm greenhouse was any flower that Ivan could get his hands on, in all states of blooming and in all colors of the rainbow. His favorites of course were the sunflowers, but he took Lily on a tour through the greenhouse, amused by how she had to crane her neck to look about the tall tables. Perhaps later he could find her a small table of her own to grow flowers on since she seemed to love them so much, or considering how short of a stay she would be having she could at least play with the pots and dirt perhaps. Lily barely uttered a word, and sucked her thumb through the whole tour, but at least she wasn't crying anymore.

"Oh! It is nearly dinner time, we spent so long in here that I lost track of time."

Ivan led Lily out of the green house and they made their way to the kitchen. There Lily sat silently as he made borsch, and hummed softly while doing so.

"After dinner would you like to see a movie about the Russian ballet? It's called " _The Nutcracker_ ", That is very popular, da?"

He turned to look at Lily and she nodded, ever silent. However Ivan was not discouraged, she would warm up to him eventually, he was certain of it. He was hoping to even be able to teach her a bit of Russian while she was in his care, she would probably at least pick up on his usual ones such as "da" and perhaps the names of different foods.

Ivan ladled out a large bowl of soup for himself and a smaller one for her before adding a dollop of sour cream to each and sitting at the tall table with her, he had to set her on a few pillows so she could reach the table to eat. She ate like how she did everything else, silently and while looking at the table. Ivan didn't even really know the color of her eyes since she hadn't really looked him full on yet. However he thought that maybe they were blue, but then again that was mostly speculation.

The movie was also a silent affair; however Lily at least looked up long enough to watch it, confirming her suspected blue eyes. If Ivan wasn't mistaken, he even thought he had seen a small smile on the petite girls face when the ballerinas twirled on the screen before her, dressed up in costumes of candies, royalty, mice and toys. After that small glimpse of hope Ivan helped her with her nighttime chores of taking a bath, brushing her teeth and putting on a night gown before he tucked her into bed with a blue plush bunny to sleep with.

"Good night little one."

Lily curled up without a word; at the very least she was holding the bunny close to her until he left the room. He made sure that the door was ajar if she needed him, although he was doubtful if she would even go to him for help.

The rest of the week passed like that, with Lily barely even speaking a word and hardly even doing anything really, he was honestly starting to get concerned for the child and considered breaking down and asking for advice from the other nations until one night changed all of that.

Lightning crashed and thunder roared as Ivan tried to block it all out with his pillow, very unsuccessfully at that. The thunder and sleet rattled the house to its very foundation and Ivan was a bit worried about Lily, actually, very worried about Lily. He could handle a stunt like this from General Winter, but a small child? Ivan finally tossed the cover off of his bed and made his way down the hall to check on her, just as another thundering crash came from outside and he found himself quickening his step.

Inside her room was an empty bed, causing him to panic for a millisecond until he heard loud sobbing coming from under the bed, almost muffled by the sounds of the storm outside. Outside the window lighting crashed, the thunder roared and Lily screamed in fear, sobbing again even when the thunder passed.

"Lily! Come out from under there, it is ok!"

Ivan made his way over to the bed and kneeled down to look under the bed, muttering in soft Russian to hopefully calm her while she hid under the bed. To his surprise Lily scurried out from her hiding spot and flung herself into his arms, crying loudly as he rubbed her back in soothing circles as he had seen many mothers do, utterly shocked at this sudden change.

"M-make it go a-away! I don't like it! Don't let it h-hurt me!"

Lily screamed in terror again as another crash from the lighting was heard and soon Ivan was pacing the halls with her in his arms, carrying her like a small doll as he muttered soothing Russian lullabies. He was not going to think about this new development, not when he had to work on comforting her first.

"Shhh, it is ok little one, it is just a storm, it can't hurt you…I'll protect you!"

Lily continued to cry as she clung to him, finally having found something scarier than the imposing Russian man. This went on until the storm slacked off hours later and Ivan was resting on the couch with her as she fell asleep, finally having been worn out by crying so much. He remained exactly where he was, not wishing to disturb her in her slumber as she was curled up in his arms, using one of his arms as a pillow. He could only hope that this new development would last as he himself fell asleep to the soft pattering of a much more relaxed rain storm that with luck would turn into snow by morning.

"Lily? Would you like to bake a cake with me?"

Ivan's voice rang out cheerfully from the kitchen, one eye on Lily in the living room where she was coloring with thick crayons that took up the entirety of her tiny hand. Lily looked up from her task and nodded with a small smile, joining him in the kitchen.

She was still quiet, the storm had not changed that, but now her silence was more of her personality and less made out of fear. Ever since the storm she had been almost clingy, but never so much that a new problem arose from it, this was much better than her being terrified of him, and honestly, he loved her actually responding to him. She delighted in working in the greenhouse with him for playtime and even hugging him while they watched a movie. It was a wonderful new development, which of course he made sure to point out to the others whenever they checked in with him. Francis of course called almost every day, but once he had a word from Lily he would relax and chat with "Mr. Ivan" for a bit. This Ivan did not mind, at least he didn't try to get Lily back.

In the kitchen Ivan grabbed the frilly apron that looked like a sunflower for her and a plain white one for him and then set her on tasks such as gathering the light weight ingredients, measuring ingredients with help and then using the electric mixer with _much_ help. By the time they were done however there was a cake in the oven and a mess on the table, not to mention Lily's hair.

Despite this Lily was smiling and even hugged him on his leg before he helped her rinse off her hair and get changed to go into the city once the cake was done.

The cake was finished and left to cool as Ivan dressed Lily in a truly adorable dress that he had bought for her. The dress had a red rose print and such a full skirt that Lily could barely see over it to put on her shoes, but she loved it anyway as she often whispered a soft "thank you" whenever she was allowed to wear it. Over this treasured dress a thick coat was placed over the small child, gloves, a hat and a scarf until she looked the equivalent of a marshmallow, but at least General winter would not be able to freeze her, since he had already terrified the poor child with that storm. They headed out in the heated car as far as possible into the city before having to go out on foot.

"…Where are… we going?"

Ivan looked at the small child who was clinging to his hand as they walked through the snowy streets of Moscow.

"Somewhere very special _dushka."_

Ivan was now enjoying this new "parenting" thing since he had missed out on most of that back during the colonization heyday. It was wonderful getting to use those sweet names that were often spoken from parent to child, and now on what was Christmas Eve for the rest of the world he wanted to do something special for Lily. He could only hope that she would like it and not freeze on the way there.

After a bit more walking down the freezing city blocks they finally arrived at the iconic St. Basil's Cathedral, the most colorful and beautiful of the "onion" dome cathedrals. That was his opinion of course, but what did he know, he was only _Russia_ after all. He looked at Lily for her reaction and was immensely pleased to see the look of utter joy and amazement on the child's face; almost mirroring the look that he himself had the first day that the domes were built. His Christmas Eve surprise had been a good one it seemed. While it was not technically time for the Russian Christmas which was in January, he suggested that the Cathedral be decorated sooner, just this year…

"Toys! They're toys!"

The large Russian man, whom many were scared of, laughed gleefully and picked Lily up so that she could see the cathedral and the large Christmas trees better, the whole square was covered in brightly decorated trees and lights strung to give the whole area a very festive feel. The cathedral itself was being spotlighted and if he was honest he could easily see how a child could mistake the cathedrals brightly colored onion domes for spinning tops, like in a game.

"No little one, those are the domes of the church, aren't they pretty?"

Lily snuggled into his coat and stared up at the brightly lit cathedral and trees, seemingly mesmerized as she spoke softer than usual.

"Da."

 _Christmas morning_

Ivan had to skip some of his usual Christmas traditions in consideration of Lily's young age, however they enjoyed a traditional Russian Christmas dinner with _borsch_ , gingerbread, honey cake and many other foods all of which Lily bravely tried, and enjoyed for the most part. There was a bit of an issue over the porridge, but it was quickly resolved with him adding some honey and berries, utterly "spoiling" the child in his care. After ushering her to bed Ivan set to the new task of setting out presents for her to find in the morning, mostly simple books, outfits and simple toys. He had told Finland that he could handle hers on his own and he was a bit proud with what he had come up with. When he was done all that was left was to wait for her to awaken, and then he would have the joy of making a child so utterly happy on Christmas, something he couldn't wait for.

That morning Lily woke up far earlier than usual and awoke Ivan with a light tug on his wool pajama shirt. After all the work that went into last night Ivan was exhausted but did his best to break through that for her.

"Hmm? Ah Lily! You're up early little one, are you ready to go see what Old man Frost has given you?"

After her blank expression he chuckled softly and sat up, letting her take his hand.

"I meant Pere Noel little one. Here in Russia we usually let Old man Frost deliver the gifts, but since you've been such a good girl Pere Noel decided to deliver your gifts instead, but I still prefer to call him Old man Frost."

Lily was a bundle of energy this morning nodding so fast her hair flew about wildly, this was both amusing and surprising from such a timid child….Perhaps he should not have given her so much cake the night before… Regardless she ran into the living room and seemed to be astonished by the amount of gifts that had her name on them, the only word she had learned by this point.

"….These can't be mine."

"They are for you little one!"

"Nu uh!"

"Yes they are little one."

He was amused by the look of surprise on her face and smiled at her, urging her on as she hesitantly picked up a neatly wrapped present.

"….This is….Mine?"

"Exactly Lily."

She turned the box over in her small hands and then suddenly set it down, taking his hand.

"You first!"

"Me? But these presents are for you little one."

Lily shook her head with a small smile and ran to her room, coming back in mere seconds with a disorganized box that had been painstakingly scribbled on with what must have been washable markers. The designs were childish flowers, mostly sunflowers.

"Here's yours!"

He didn't know what to do….A child giving _him_ a gift? He took the small package in his hands and carefully opened the box. Inside was an assortment of dried flowers from his garden, some folded up papers of what must have been drawings from herself, and some small rocks that she must have thought were interesting enough to be gifts.

It was wonderful.

"My….My little one…I love it."

Lily leaped into his arms and he held her there, in all his many years this honestly had to be the best Christmas.

"NO! NO! NO!"

"But…Lily…You must come back to the orphanage."

"NO!"

With her arms crossed, face red and feet ready to stomp Lily was the perfect example of a child five seconds away from an utter meltdown and tantrum. Ivan was a bit honored honestly but he had to do what was best for Lily, even if she _wanted_ to stay with him. It was the day that he had been dreading, the day that he had to give her back to the orphanage.

"Little one you have to go back, don't you want to see your friends again?"

"NO!...DON'T LEAVE ME!"

Lily ran to _Ivan_ and clung tightly onto his leg, much to Francis's surprise, it seemed like the Frenchman's jaw would drop to the floor at any moment.

"Little one…..I won't leave you, ever…But you must go back."

Lily began to cry, shaking her head as she hid it against his leg, only really reaching up to his knee. She began to whine and tried to speak but it was all an incoherent mess of words. The only thing he could hope to do was pick her up and console her. This he did and it seemed to make a small dent as her sobs dulled down a bit, turning into soft hiccups as he rubbed her back in soothing circles as he had that night of the storm.

"Lily you know that I can't keep you….I want to but…It would be impossible."

"Why?!"

He couldn't keep her, he couldn't have her live with him only to watch her grow old and one day have her die…He couldn't bear that, it was hard enough for him to watch his bosses and people go, but his own adopted child? Who could live with that?

"…I can't ….I'm truly sorry Lily…. _Dushka_."

Lily clung to his scarf and looked up at him with red blotchy eyes.

"But….I want to see you."

"I can at least visit little one."

"…..Promise?"

"Of course."

"…..Ok…"

He held her a bit more before finally setting her down and letting her be led away by Francis to be taken to the orphanage, to be taken away from _him_ and be raised by a human family.

It was the hardest thing he has ever had to do.


	3. England

_Day one_

How he got roped into this he had no bloody clue. He was never good at taking care of children, never would be. However he supposed that it was his duty, after all, the rest of the other nations were taking in a child, and he refused to let himself be shown up by any of those other nations.

After Mrs _. Jeaunes Orphanage for special ladies_ was discovered to be run by an alcoholic old lady the place was shut down until the nations could renovate the place. However that left the children with nowhere to go. If they went to other foster homes or orphanages then there was a chance of them getting separated, and the older girls refused to let that happen. So, that left them with only one option. To take in the girls themselves. After all, it was only for a month.

 _Nothing_ could possibly go wrong.

 _Right_.

Arthur stood outside his house and looked at his watch for the fifth time in that single minute.

"That frog is always late…."

Finally just as he was about to make an angry call to the frog, the nation in question showed up and helped a small girl out of the car and carried her bags up the steps to Arthurs patio. Arthur remembered this particular girl; it was the one who had come to the world meeting about Eloise being missing.

"Ah, hello Marie. It's nice to see you again."

Marie gazed up at Arthur and smiled brightly, in a brand new blue princess dress.

"Hello Mr. Kirkland!"

Arthur smiles softly, he had to admit, if she was always this polite then perhaps this wouldn't be _that_ hard. His plan was to just be as polite to the child as possible and see what happened from there, hopefully it would work.

"You can call me Arthur love."

"Ok Mr. Arthur!"

Even while Marie beamed brightly Arthur raised a bushy eyebrow to Francis who just shrugged.

"Alright then….How about we go inside? I have tea on the table."

Marie smiled brightly and practically skipped to the kitchen, dragging a teddy bear in a knight uniform behind her. This left Arthur to collect the bags from Francis.

"So…Is there anything I should know?"

Francis nods, peering into the kitchen where Marie was giving tea to her bear.

"Oui. First, just let her wear one of her princess dresses every day. _Don't_ try to stop it. Second, that bears name is Lancelot, make sure to say hello to it. And lastly, try not to kill her with your horrible cooking….Plus your outfit is tacky."

Arthur hacked out a dry laugh as he ushers Francis towards the door, his hand twitching at the glorious thought of punching Francis in his pointy nose.

"Very funny, very funny….Frog."

"Black sheep."

"Cheese breath."

"Eyebrows."

Arthur was just about to come up with another sharp remark when he heard a crash come with the kitchen, followed by an "uh oh." Two things you never wanted to hear with children in the house.

"I will leave you to it then."

Francis blew a kiss just to tick Arthur off he was _sure,_ and then drove away; leaving Arthur with a small child who apparently made you talk to a teddy bear and only wore princess dresses...

This was going to be a long month.

Arthur locked the door and then hurried to the kitchen where he saw Marie with eyes full of tears, trying to wipe up a spill on the table with her dress.

"I-I'm sorry Mr. Arthur! I didn't mean to!"

Arthur sighs softly and quickly took a handle on the situation, the teapot had merely turned on its side and emptied all the piping hot tea onto the table, but it wasn't chipped and Marie didn't seem hurt, just upset. He wiped off the table, helped Marie clean her dress, and even said hello to Lancelot while he quickly took him off of the table. The only thing he couldn't seem to figure out was how to stop Marie from crying.

"Love it's alright, all you did was spill some tea, the pot isn't even broken."

"It's not that!"

Arthur looked at her, suddenly afraid that he had missed something and she _had_ somehow gotten burnt by the hot tea, even though he had left it out to cool down.

"What is it then? Are you hurt?"

Marie shakes her head and held up Lancelot with a quivering lip. The teddy bear was soaked, something Arthur had missed in his haste to fix the table and the girl.

"Ah, I see. Then let's just wash him in the washer."

Maries face was one of utter horror as she hugged the soaked bear to herself protectively, squishing out tea as she gripped him, more tears falling. She looked one second away from an absolute meltdown, something Arthur was _not_ ready to handle this early in the morning.

"But he'll drown! He _can't_ go into a washer!"

Arthur takes a small breath to collect his patience and nods.

"Of course, how foolish of me. How about we give him a bath then?"

Marie's tears stopped as soon as they came as she seemed excited by the idea.

"Can he swim in the tub Mr. Arthur?"

"I suppose so, if that's what he wants to do, just as long as he gets clean."

"Ok!"

With Arthurs help Marie was set to work on "giving Lancelot a bath" in the sink while Arthur made lunch for them. In only thirty minutes there had already been a spill, her dress was still soaked, her bear was soaked and she had almost had a meltdown. Perhaps this was why Mrs. Jeaune hit the "happy juice" as Eloise put it…. Arthur shoved this realization out of his brain as he turned around and gave Marie her sandwich. Marie had gone ahead and set Lancelot out to "sunbathe" and was now sitting at the table patiently.

"So love, what do you like to do? What's your favorite subject in school?"

Marie smiles widely as she kicks her legs under the table and eats the sandwich, somehow managing to get peanut butter and jam all over her mouth.

"I love Camelot and King Arthur, so I like reading the most! I like dressing up like a princess from that story, and one day I will marry a prince...Since your name is Arthur can I call you King Arthur? _Please_?"

Arthur mulled over this for a moment as she smiled over at him, eyes full of hope. It was actually nice to see a young girl who liked some of the original knight and princess stories, not just whatever came on the TV.

"I suppose I wouldn't mind that."

Marie at that point looked like she had just been given the world.

" _Thank you thank you thank you_!"

When you are greeted with that much enthusiasm no one could resist a smile, including Arthur.

"You're quite welcome love. Now then, how about you wash off that mouth of yours?"

Marie smiles sheepishly as she accepted Arthurs offered napkin and wiped off her mouth.

After the incident with the spilled tea the rest of the day was spent without a hitch, even bath time, something that surprised Arthur. Perhaps he was better with children than he thought. He was just tucking her into bed when she looked up at him, clutching onto Lancelot.

"Will you please tell me a story?"

Arthur stops for a minute in his bedtime preparations and nods.

"I suppose I can. What would you like to hear?"

"The story of King Arthur!"

He should have guessed.

 _Day two_

Arthur awoke early in the morning to a young girl peering into his eyes while in her nightgown and clutching her teddy bear.

"Bloo-…..Marie why are you up so early?"

Marie shrugs silently and yawns softly.

"Can we please have breakfast now?"

Arthur looked at the clock blearily and nods, seeing how it was already eight. It only _felt_ like the crack of dawn, not that this realization made him feel any better.  
"Yes, just… give me a moment to get things ready."

Marie nods silently and walks to the kitchen, leaving Arthur to rouse himself and get ready. When his morning routine was finally over he saw Marie at the table, waiting patiently for her breakfast with Lancelot watching beside her.

"Alright love what would you like for breakfast?"

Marie leans over to "listen" to Lancelot's opinion and nods before answering Arthur.

"Well King Arthur I think we would both like some toast and apple juice, if you don't mind."

Arthur rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and nods as he sets the kettle on for tea, making sure to grab his extra strong batch for himself.

"Alright love, I can make that. I assume Lancelot would like some as well?"

"Of course."

Arthur nodded wearily and soon some only _slightly_ burnt toast and apple juice was on the table, along with a small portion for the bear. Breakfast was silent as Marie fed Lancelot and ate some food herself, somehow managing to get crumbs everywhere once again. Arthur just decided to clean her up later and once they were all done eating Arthur washed up the plates, talking to Marie while he did so.

"Alright love what do you have to wear today?"

Marie smiles widely, full of energy now as she ran to her new room. In her dresser she pulled out a yellow, ruffled princess dress and some matching yellow flats.

"I have this!"

Arthur gave up his chore of washing the dishes to check the drawer and somehow finds a single normal set of clothes of jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

"That's very nice love but how about you wear this today?"

Marie looks up at him her face falling.

"You mean….I can't wear this?"

"Well love it's just that I have some chores today that require us to go out of the house and you must look presentable. Also it is going to be chilly today, and we can't have you getting a cold."

"You mean….My princess outfit isn't pre-presentable? But how will a prince know that I'm a princess?!"

Arthur gives her a smile even though she looked like she was about to cry. He knew that this would pass and she would be fine once they got started on their day, obviously no one had tried to be stern with her yet.

"Lancelot is your knight, which will be proof enough love."

Marie nods mournfully, obviously not wanting to argue with an authority figure and then got dressed into the regular jeans and a pink shirt with a crown design. With that settled they got started on their day, but Marie looked absolutely miserable.

As Arthur went to the store he thought that she would have cheered up by then but her head hung the whole time and she barely muttered anything the whole time in the store. Perhaps he was wrong about making her change out of that dress, and it was a hard pill to swallow, he could already see the frog face laughing at him for not following his advice and so he resolved to wait just a bit more.

As Arthur went about with his chores in town he assumed that she would cheer up, but to no avail. Even when he took her to a fairly nice restaurant she barely ate a bite, not even any of her dessert. After lunch Arthur was tired of seeing her so miserable and so made his way back to the house, finally giving in, even though he could already hear Francis's taunts.

"Marie, I think you need to wear your princess dress, I do believe that Lancelot is feeling lonely being the only one is his proper attire…"

Maries face immediately radiated with joy as she leapt at him and hugged him tightly, only coming up to his stomach.

" _Thank you!"_

With that she ran off to her room and soon came out with a green sparkly dress and finished off the look with a plastic tiara, obviously trying to make up for lost time.

"How do I look?"

Arthur smiled lightly at the girl who had started to twirl around, and he had to answer truthfully.

"Like a princess."

As the days went by Arthur was slowly learning more about this child, except for how in the world she got to be in the orphanage in the first place. Of course he didn't wish to prod a sore wound but…She was so happy that he just assumed that she was given to the orphanage as a baby, or at the very least when she was very young. However the other nations had no information, and it really was bugging him, there _had_ to be a reason behind the "princess" complex.

Of course when he told Francis his suspicions he got laughed at for that, and the dress ordeal, and _then_ the bloody frog hung up the phone on him, still laughing….the stupid cheese eater, wine drinking son of a-….. At any rate, if she couldn't tell him what had happened then he would just have to use his magic to find it. That wasn't excessive at all; he was only being rational after all…

"Right then, just a quick peek into her past, that's all I need."

It was a simple spell really, if one could even call it that. A "bit of the person" in question, in this instance a left over juice from breakfast that she had been swishing around and putting back into the cup until he gave her a good thirty minute lecture on table manners. A bit gross, but far less creepy than a lock of hair or something odd like that. After this the spell just required a crystal ball, which he had (as every proper wizard should), and a few incantations. The cup was placed carefully under the crystal ball and the words once spoken showed flashes of Marie's life. The more important the memory to a person, the clearer it showed up on his crystal ball.

 _Many_ nearly clear shopping trips to the costume store swirled before his eyes, her first glance into the world Conference meeting hall, that was a bit clearer, her first day at the orphanage that made the images look like they had focusing in this whole time for the next image was perfectly, crystal clear, obviously an important memory.

Suddenly, a dark scene flashed before him, it was just as clear as if he had seen it with his own eyes. Marie was running along. No, not running. She was skipping, happy. She was running in the dark however and he couldn't solve this until she pranced past a "quiet backstage" sign. She was in a theater, with a show about to start if he was correct. She was in a costume of a princess, and as she ran into the dressing room he saw the poster of the play, it was _Camelot_ , the stage production of the story of King Arthur.

Little Marie, seemingly only four or five at the most ran up to a couple who were dressed similarly in "Camelot" fashion. From there the image blurred as the child spoke to her obvious parents, some of their conversation lost to time but things cleared up once again as the mother knelt down to Marie's level with a serene smile.

"But mom you said I could be a princess tonight, with you, on stage! I want to do that! Please! It would be good pr-pratice for when I marry a prince!"

The women who looked so much like Marie just smiled that serene smile as she answered with a gentle tone.

"You don't have to be on stage for people to know that you are a princess, you can be a princess every day. You may even keep the costume, just in case anyone doubts our little princess, but for now it is getting late and you need to sleep."

Younger Mare seemed overwhelmed with joy at the prospect of keeping the costume as she hugged her father and mother before leaving with an obvious family friend to go home.

The next scene showed Marie crying on the bed with that same friend telling her what she had just heard on the news, but it was difficult to hear the details over the child's sobbing. There was a fire, the theater had been too cheap to buy fire proof curtains and once those caught on fire it was only a matter of time for the rest of the building to go. No one knew what started it, an untapped wire that caused a spark, a cigar from the orchestra pit, or something even stranger but the long and short of it was that Maries parents were gone, Before Arthur stopped the spell he saw the family friend trying to get Marie ready for bed and into a nightgown, but she adamantly refused to get out of her costume.

Arthur stood in shock as he stared at the blank crystal ball.

"…Bloody hell…."

He only had one idea of what to do now, but he had to do a bit of research online.

 _The next day_

"Good morning love, are you ready to get up?"

Marie's eyes opened slowly, she seemed stunned to find that she was notthe one waking up early this morning.

"Yes?...Why King Arthur?"

Arthur just gave her a small smile, his bag packed already and resting in his hand.

"It's a surprise love, now then come along love, and make sure to dress in a nice dress."

That seemed to be enough for her, and soon after finishing with making breakfast she was in the kitchen in a red puffy dress and Lancelot tucked securely under her arm.

"I'm ready."

A hasty breakfast eaten, a car ride and soon Arthur' night of research had paid off. Somehow he had managed to find a Knights Faire in the city that was not closed for winter, and even better, this faire focused on the late medieval era, such as Camelot. There was to be jousting, dancing, food and music. He could only hope that she would enjoy it. Just to complete the event he had drug out some of his knight armor, and if he did say so himself, it still worked for him. They entered the gates and Arthur peeked into the rearview mirror, seeing Marie's eyes light up with sheer joy as she saw people around them in costumes, some were even princesses.

"Is this…."

"Yes love, it's a Knights fair, now come along, the jousting is just about to start!"

Marie nodded and they strode into the faire to find Arthur a place to change into his armor, and then to jousting. As they walked, Marie skipped her face shining and bright as she stared with wide eyed wonder at the faire around her. Once Arthur had his armor on, the day began.

Arthur trudged his way back to the car, perhaps armor was not quite a wise idea, not when he was also carrying a seven year old child who was fast asleep. However, when that child was tired after running around all day in an excited frenzy, when that same child had thanked you seemingly endlessly, and when that child had such a radiant smile upon her face as she slept, you learn to deal with it and trudge on in your heavy armor.


	4. Canada

By all accounts, it was the best day to be in Canada, or rather, to _be_ Canada. In Montreal the snow was falling heavily and he was forced to pull his red coat closer to himself against the freezing snow, which Matthew adored even if it made the roads a mess and froze poor last minute Christmas shoppers. Matthew could only hope that Francis bought a heavy coat for Emily, the girl that was assigned to him, but then again, knowing his former guardian, he had more than likely already taken all the girls out on a shopping trip, perhaps Francis also went to the salon with them. He probably got a manicure or something like that...

Regardless of that humorous idea, Matthew scanned the snowy streets outside his apartment until finally, the unmistakable yellow hood of a taxi lightly dusted with snow pulled into the front of his apartment. He immediately walked outside to greet Francis and the girl with that Canadian hospitality that was so instilled within him.

"Hello eh!"

Ok, so he was willing to live up to his stereotype every once in awhile and that was when he was first introducing himself to people, it just kind of happened. However Emily, only six years old and missing several teeth seemed delighted by his antics, as most people seemed to be. If he could bring a little joy to someone, who was he to begrudge someone that?

"Heya! I'm Emily, you're Matthew right? Nice to meet yah!"

With a surprisingly strong handshake from such a small frame, she waltzed straight into Matthews home and started to roam around, commenting on items in his apartment as she walked about.

"Is that real?...that's neat!...I like your flags…Isn't it a bit excessive to have this many flags in here?...Hey is that a _bear_?!"

Before Matthew could even open his mouth to stop her or even respond to any of her comments she was already gone to interrogate Kuma…Kumashiro? He couldn't ever remember its name, but the bear that was his friend. While she was thoroughly distracted by the small polar bear Matthew shot Francis a glance, which he merely shrugged at tiredly.

"Well then…She's a bit…animated, eh?"

"Very much so _mon petit_ …At any rate, she is not a troublemaker, the issue will simply be getting her to sit still… _Bonne chance mon petite_!"

With that Francis left, looking utterly exhausted from what Matthew could only guess must have been a very…animated ten hour airplane trip.

There would be no more quiet afternoons with hot coffee for a while it seemed like...Oh well, he had agreed to this and more than that, the others certainly noticed him when he volunteered to take in a child, so surely this couldn't be that bad.

Right?

This girl didn't stop talking...She literally never seemed to stop talking, he even had to stop her in the middle of a sentence to remind her to _breath_ e. That first day that he had her she talked about everything from her favorite books, (all outdoor survival guides, not anything that a normal six year old would read), her favorite activities (anything outside), and finally even her dream for the future (apparently it was between being a world famous ice skater or being a world famous survival expert...There was a trend here.) By the end of the day, Matthew felt like he was well equipped to start writing her biography...And who knew how much she would talk tomorrow?!

When Matthew woke up the next morning a blurry blob greeted him which was apparently speaking to him, but without his morning cup of coffee all that processed was the sound, and even that sounded like it was coming through a muffled old radio….

 _Dieu_ he needed coffee to babysit.

"E-Emily give me...Give me a second ok? _Sil Vous plâit."_

His hands fumbled for his glasses until they finally found them and he was able to see somewhat. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes and finally was able to clearly see Emily standing beside his bed.

"Ahh….Good morning. What are you doing out of bed?"

"It's already six and you weren't up so I came in, by the way did you know that you snore? Also your bear-"

Matthew had to resist the incredibly strong urge to bury his face into the pillow and merely nodded to her comments.

"I've been told..But Emily, don't you know it's kind of rude to go into someone's room without knocking?"

Apparently he had not yet mastered a stern voice as the child merely shrugged instead of agreeing with his small lecture.

"A lot of the girls did it in the orphanage, Marie was the earliest…"

Huh, that was England's girl...He knew Arthur wouldn't be too happy about that.

"Well...Just knock next time, unless it's an emergency ok?"

"Ok...Can I get some breakfast now? Come on I've been waiting!"

"You mean, may I get some breakfast?"

Was everyone this...imprudent and he was just overly polite or did this child just not have many manners...Maybe he was overreacting.

"Oh...yeah sure, may I get some breakfast?"

It was a start...It was a start. He reminded himself of that fact as he led the child to the kitchen, had her sit down and immediately started on a large pot of coffee for himself and then finally on some pancakes for both of them. He tried to listen to her long narrative, after all he knew what it was like to be ignored but...there was so much to listen to that by the time he was flipping the perfectly golden pancakes..

He had no clue what she was talking about anymore.

It wasn't like he got a lot of practice talking to people, most ignored him so he didn't get a lot of chances for conversation but...Still. So when he flipped the last pancake he was startled by an unusually loud question.

"SO? ...Can we?"

Do what? That was the question he _should_ have asked but embarrassment forced him to say something else...Something _stupid._

"Augh….Sure, eh?"

Her face light up in an expression of pure joy and for a split, innocent, _naive_ second he felt that he had made the correct decision.

"You really mean it? We can go camping?"

A six year old...Who talked nonstop...And would run up to bears...Going camping with him...A guy who had never had any babysitting experience before this…

"Wait I meant...Ehh it's a good idea but…"

Emily's face turned down and she for once spoke softly.

"Oh...I get it...But...I won't be trouble, I promise! Please! I've never actually been camping an-"

"You've never been camping? But your books…"

"I just read a lot about it! I've never been…The orphanage was in the city so I've only been to the park."

"So….You've never been to the forest?...At all?"

"Nope!"

Ok, so it was going to be hard...He'd miss Christmas...It couldn't work, but….Good grief, what was he supposed to say when a kids had not even seen a real forest? Had not ever gotten to feel utterly at peace with the world when surrounded by snow capped fir and pine trees or bare maple trees with only the sound of their own feet and a few brave wildlife to disturb their peace? No one loved the forest as much as he did, it was his favorite place to be when he was worried or upset, or even just to relax….

He had to share this with Emily.

"Ok, we can go, just you have to listen to me, deal?"

"DEAL!"

No amount of coffee was enough to handle her energy so Matthew turned off the coffee and cut himself at only three cups of coffee. He had planning to do, and he couldn't do that if he was all hyped up on coffee. After breakfast Emily ran around the house, talking to him and then Kumashiro about the camping trip over and over again while Matthew worked on planning...This was going to be a long day, or as Francis would say... _Animated_.

By the end of the day Matthew had all of this planning done, he prided himself on his planning skills after all and he honestly wanted to pat himself on the back for this one. Only took one day, and half of that was making sure that Emily was entertained...So overall not too bad.

Nighttime came and Matthew tucked Emily in to bed to begin on packing for what would be a week long trip. The cabin was set, (being Canada did have it's perks, such as full time access to a cabin throughout the year.) the food was ready and all he had left to do was actually go there. Francis had brought Emily plenty of winter clothes so he didn't have to worry about that but he did have to worry a bit about the child...He wasn't sure how he felt about her.

She was nice, just not as polite as he was used to and just very talkative. You would have thought that he would be used to it by now what with Alfred, but apparently not. There was one simbilance between them however, and that was the fact that both Emily and Alfred commanded attention, but could not entirely keep it. You started off listening to them what with their similar loud personality, but eventually, most people started to lose attention to what they were actually saying...He himself was different.

When he actually got someone's attention, he managed to keep it typically because people only paid attention to him when something serious was being said...He didn't know which was better, but Emily would be starting real school soon and he could only hope that she found some friends who could forgive her minor flaws….Whatever other people thought of her, he was determined to like her so she would have at least one friend.

"Emily….Emily wake up!"

The sun had not yet risen but Matthew was already set to go on their camping trip. It was freezing cold outside when he had loaded up the car, as he had felt his fingers grow stiff with cold outside he was even more grateful that he opted for the cabin option and not tent...That would have been a rather short end to their trip. However he had gotten the cabin, and all that was left was to wake up Emily and get driving for two hours until they reached the spot in the middle of nowhere.

"Emily come on now, wake up."

 _Finally_ , she began to rouse herself slowly, before suddenly sitting bolt upright and nearly screaming into his face.

" _CAMPING_!"

He should have drank four instead of three cups of coffee this morning.  
"Yes, camping! Now please….Don't _ever_ do that again, eh?"

"Ok, can we please get going now?!"

" _Ouai_ , but you have to get out of-"

The child seemed to be five steps ahead of him as usual as she threw back the sheets, scrambled out of bed and seemed to _fly_ to the bathroom in her haste to get ready.

"Bed….Well...Dieu, I need more coffee…"

Armed with a new cup of coffee in his favorite travel mug (etched with a maple leaf design….It was a gift, or at least that what he told people), and the last bag Matthew set out to the car with Emily and Kumajiroai (Kumahiro?).

Emily...Was...Well she was Emily the whole trip down, however he did notice a great deal more "thank you's" mixed in with the typical rhetoric of stories and ideas that always spewed from her mouth. But hey, he had coffee so nothing bothered him at that point. After a few hours on the road they arrived at the cabin.

It was small, covered in snow, but seemed to be neat on the outside, plus it was surrounded by forests and the last renters had left a fire going for them, so he couldn't complain. Before he could warn her Emily had piled out of the car in a craze, racing outside and laughing as she ran from tree to tree. She would stop to gaze up at the long pine branches and then would hurry on to the next tree, where she might find a pinecone or something else, inspect it, drop it and then the process would begin again.

"Emily!"

Emily looked up from inspecting the branches of an oak tree that was a bit of ways away from the cabin.

"...Yes?"  
For once, he saw her looked worried, as if he would ask her to go inside and stay there just when she had finally gotten to the forest.

"Be back inside for lunch or when you get cold...Also, pine tree's are the best for climbing _trust_ me."

With those simple instructions Matthew left to go inside, but he made sure Kuma was nearby in case Emily needed help. Inside the house, there was work to be done. The woodstove had to be stocked with more logs, the food had to be put away into the cabinets, and finally their suitcases had to be put away. All of that made him truly appreciate how much work Francis put into their own camping trips when he was a brand new colony. At that point in his life it was mostly a blur but what stood out were those trips. Since Francis would go on fur trips for months on end, he would sometimes bring Matthew to some of the places that were close to fort, or town where Francis would leave him with a nanny till the trip was over. However, before all that, Matthew got the chance to camp for a few days. It was a time when Matthew gathered interesting items to bring back to Francis, mostly smooth stones that his toddler mind found beautiful, or oddly shaped leaves. Each time Francis would add it to his hunting trip bag, saying that they were his good luck charms. It was those days that Matthew remembered the most from his childhood, and he didn't think that he could ever truly forget them.

By the time lunch time rolled around, Matthew was done with his little waltz through memory lane, and Emily burst into the cabin right on time, her nose a bright red, her teeth chattering and covered in snow but with the largest smile he had ever seen on her face.

"There's so many _trees_!"

"Well, this is a forest eh? Go on ahead and warm up by the fire, I'm almost done with lunch."  
"Ok! Oh, when I was out there I saw a creek, pine trees, maple trees and even deer tracks!"

Of course, Matthew had seen all of those things a million times but he merely smiled wider.

"Deer tracks,huh? Sounds interesting, maybe there's a mom and her babies nearby."

"Yeah! Can we leave out some food for them, just in case?"

"Well, I don't see why not, but first you need to eat your lunch, ok?"

"Oh, Ok! Then, can I show you the stream?"

"Sure, I need a break anyway."

Matthew set out two plates of grilled cheese with two bowls of steaming tomato soup and sat down with Emily, eating quietly as she chattered on. Instead of just talking about the "wild" she actually told him what she had seen and asked questions, which he answered and then went right back to merely listening.

Her excitement for what he loved the most about his own country made him swell with a bit of pride as she told him about the clear stream, the tree she had climbed,and more. He found himself being more engaged in what she was talking about, not that he hadn't listened before just now...Now he was able to share more of a connection with her, and that was something much better than what she told him before, which all just came out of books.

After lunch, they headed back out into the woods, Emily scampering almost like a deer from spot to spot, showing him the way to the stream as he walked leisurely, his hands in his red coat as he just sucked in the fresh cold air.

"I've forgotten how much I missed this."

"But….You live so close by, wouldn't you want to come here every day?!"

Emily gestured widely to the woods behind her, arriving at the stream he stopped and gazed at what she had found so spectacular was an ordinary stream with smooth pebbles lining the edges, nothing truly special about it, however it made him smile.

"I wish I could but my job wouldn't let me, I used to go out here a lot more though."

"Who with? When?"

Emily called out her questions as he carefully walked across a log that spanned the extremely short distance of the stream.

"When I was younger, a little younger than you...I went with my father, f-...Frank."

Emily giggled as she made it to the end of the leg, she slung her legs around wildly and began the "trek" back to the other edge.

"Your father's name is _Frank_ , that's a silly name….I like it!"

With an assured nod Emily lept off of the edge of the log and bounded over to him.

"What was he like, your dad?"

"Hmm? Oh he was like most dads I guess...Really nice, good at baking actually and he always made sure I had good manners."

Emily seemed to be absorbing all of this in as she suddenly smiled.

"He sounds neat, I'll tell you what my parents are like when I find them, ok?!"

"Your….Parents?"

"Well of course my parents! I had to have them at some point, right?"

"Eh, of course."

Emily scuffed the snow with a thick boot before walking along the stream, looking for all the world like an adult about to discuss something serious, like taxes.

"Well of course I had parents, they're just forgetful. They accidentally left me in a park when I was a baby, funny huh? It's ok though, the police found me and shipped me off to an orphanage before my parents could find me again, so now I have to be famous so they'll recognize me on the TV someday and come find me."

She glanced over at Matthew with a small frown when she saw his astonished expression.

"They're….They're not bad people! Everyone says that, but I know they're not! My parents wouldn't have just _left_ me there, they're not that evil they're just...Forgetful is all."

 _WHAT_ was he supposed to say to that?! Here was a child who just spewed out her life to him, and it was…. _That._ Obviously Emily had spent so long making up a story that her parents were just "forgetful", and how was he supposed to just _crush_ that for her? He couldn't do that, and so he did not.

"Yeah...Hey Emily, let's go make some cookies ok? I'm sure Kuma would like some as well, right buddy?"

Luckily, the bear caught on quick and nodded in agreement quickly, causing Matthew to clap his hands together loudly, startling a poor bird off of it's perch in a pine tree.

"Well, it's decided, come on Emily!"

"But-"

"Don't worry, we have an entire week out here, so we will come back out early tomorrow morning."

"...OK.."

Emily looked back at the stream for a second but, as Matthew passed under a maple tree, inspiration struck him.

"Hey, I'll tell you a story tonight, better?"

"Yeah! What kind of story?"

"I'll tell you what my grandma told me about the forest and it's spirits….She'd like that I'm passing it on."

"Well...What's it about?"

"Hmm...The first one I'll tell you is….About the Sky Mother, and how she made the world..."

That night, Matthew told her stories that his grandmother had told him, long before the European nations had ever found him and his brother, long before the colonies were made, he told Emily stories from that time, and he knew it was the right decision. His grandma would be glad that her stories did not fade out with her. That thought was bittersweet, but he made sure to stay energized and excited when telling Emily his stories, and she listened.

That entire week she spent the days outside, expanding her knowledge of the woods and then at night he would tell her more stories by the woodstove.

When the time came for them to leave the cabin..he didn't want to leave. There were still so many stories that he had left and yet...He could never tell her all of them before she had to go back to Paris. But, he had tried and that's what counted. He was packing up the last of the food while Emily was packing up his suitcase. He heard the heavy bag roll into the kitchen and turned around with the box half full of food.

"All packed up? Did you double check?"

Emily nodded to both questions, glancing around the kitchen.

"...Are you sure we can't stay just one more day?"

He knew that this was coming, while the answer was that he _wanted_ to stay more, he knew they couldn't.

"I hate leaving as much as you do but we have to go, ok?"

"...I know, I'm sorry."

Matthew shrugged with a smile, walking to her and then whispering like he had a secret.

"It's fine, I even considered telling them we got snowed in…"

That got a small chuckle from the girl and he was able to ease her out to the car.

The next day she would be on the plane back to Paris, but at least she had this to remember. Who knew, maybe because of this trip she would grow to be a world famous survivor like she had always wanted, anything was possible after all. Matthew would just have to keep an eye out for a woman with a bright smile, and who wouldn't stop talking about her passions, then he would know that it was Emily.

Then, just maybe, he would get to watch a show based on her adventures.

He looked forward to that.


	5. Feliciano and Romano

The small cottage smelled warmly of onion, garlic and olive oil sizzling in a pot together to get ready for the sauce, freshly crushed tomatoes from the garden in summer and then once it was all simmering there would be fresh and sweet basil, hand shredded into the pot ( _never_ chopped), then the powerful oregano that you had to keep a close rein on and then of course, the rosemary. Yes, you could say that Italians were serious about their cooking, which is what made Feliciano and Romano perfect to be taking care of a toddler by the name of Phoebe, toddlers were small humans who adored food and as long as they could get her to eat good food then everything would be happy and perfect!

At least, that was the plan for the next month as Feliciano explained it in his ever cheerful way to Romano. He thought it was all bull, but whatever. Feliciano tasted the sauce one last time before nodding with a flourish to Romano who slouched beside the wooden kitchen table while Feliciano taste tested his marinara sauce.

"It's perfect! Ready for the pasta!"

"Then back off, eh?"

Feliciano backed off with his everlasting grin to let his brother combine the thin spaghetti and the sauce. They were both great at cooking but there was a slight difference in their pastas and sauces, Romano was better at the sauce and Feliciano was better at making pasta, it was odd but it made them the perfect team.

The whole kitchen smelled like good cooking now, light streaming in from the large window that was lined with pots of fresh herbs as the spaghetti was finished.

"There, done. Now when is that French idiot supposed to get here with the bambino, the pasta can't wait all day you know!"

"Calm down, he'll be here soon!"

Romano let out one of signature "che's" and sat down, drumming the table with his fingers, this whole was irritating to him though, who thought it be a good idea for _him_ to help take care of a kid?! At least he was grouped up with his brother, if he was lucky Feliciano would do most of the work….

"Alright so who are we getting again?"

"Ah, Phoebe! She's a cute little fratello from what i've heard except for she's going through her "terrible two's", whatever that means…"

"Eugh, of course they give us the trouble child!"

"Romano don't say something like that, we don't even know her!"  
"You don't tell me what to do!"

Just before an argument (one-sided if Romano was being honest) could break out a taxi car rolled up in front of the small cottage, Francis got out and went around to back, picking up a small toddler whom must be Phoebe. The petite girl was dressed in only a skirt and a long sleeve shirt since it was warm in this part of Italy, even in the dead of winter.

"Ah, she's here! Isn't she cute?!

The girl was tiny with wispy blond hair, a rounded almost chubby face from baby fat that had yet to be shed and as Francis got closer Romano could see bright green eyes looking around in wonder at the stone cottage house and sunny countryside. Feliciano was the first to get to Francis and Phoebe first, he cooeed and gushed like a fool over the little girl who regarded him with calm curiosity. Finally she began to giggle at his antics and waved small fingers at him, speaking up, her speech was energetic but a little mumbled since she was so young.

"Hi!...Hi!"

"Oh hello little bambino! Look Romano, look at how _cute_ she is!"

"Oui she is, don't you think so Romano?!"

He chose to remain silent, he hated that man so _much_ and instead regarded Phoebe, who was doing her best to appear cute but he knew that would change soon.

Beside him Feliciano gently squashed the girl's cheeks, the little girl laughing with utter glee.

"Yeah, yeah I'm looking."

Feliciano watched him as he looked over the girl, Phoebe regarding him for a moment before waving at him too, her tiny hand waving frantically.

"Hi!...Hi!"

With that long speech over Phoebe stuck her entire hand in her mouth before Francis could stop her. Most toddlers would be content with a mere thumb but apparently not Phoebe.

"Ah! _Non_ Phobe!"

Francis sighed as the toddler merely looked up at him, her hand covered in saliva by this point, making Francis cringe.

"Good luck you two...Here, we will need to do this exchange as quickly as possible or else she might run after the car….So here."

Francis handed Phoebe over to Romano, he stared at the girl as if she was a foreign creature, Phoebe regarding him in much the same way. Francis handed a small pink suitcase to Feliciano, almost shoving it into his brother's hands.

"Good luck again! Don't give in to her tantrums!"

With that Francis signaled the taxi driver who nodded as he got in, the car speeding away.

"Oh….Ok big brother…..France?"

They watched the car race away, then looked at the girl. Phoebe looked after the car with wide eyes, after a mere second the area around her eyes began to scrunch up and her face turned red, in the next second an ear piercing scream split the ear, Phoebe's face streamed with tears as she looked at the empty road with utter despair and loneliness.

"Ack! You take her! I don't know what to do!"

Romano tried to trade off with Feliciano but Phoebe refused to let go of him, somehow screaming louder whenever they tried to get her off, she was _strong_ for a toddler.

"Ah great, just great! I've got a screaming girl in my arms who won't let go!"

His outburst only made Phoebe scream louder and he groaned, bouncing her wildly in an attempt to make her stop.

"Romano stop it, she isn't going to calm down that way!"

"Then figure something else out before my ears start to bleed!"

The two hurried into the small house, the sound only amplifying once they were inside the stone walls, Romano briskly _ran_ to the most comforting place inside the house, the kitchen. There he offered Phoebe a string of pasta with enough sauce to make it tasty and hopefully distracting.

"Here, eat this and stop crying!"

Phoebe looked at it and smacked the food out of his hand, letting it fall on the floor as she clutched on tighter to him, her tears soaking through his shirt now as she wailed into it.

"That didn't work!...Feliciano where the _hell_ are you?!"

His brother hurried into the kitchen, holding a disc in his hands. Without a word to him Feliciano popped the CD into a player and soon the rich cords of "El Divo" filled the air with the groups soothing voices, they were singing the Italian version of the song "Hallelujah", one of their favorites. Holding his breath, Romano waited for the opera group's spell to work on Phoebe, and soon the girl had quieted down, listening to the group. By the end of the song she was utterly calm, looking around at the kitchen, sucking on her hand. Her face was hot and flushed still, so Romano had Feliciano get her a cool rag. He brushed off her face with it, cooling her down from all the crying and screaming.

"There. Ugh, you didn't have to scream so much bambino."

From the corner of his eye he spotted Feliciano watching him.

"What, never seen this trick before?!"

"No it's just….You're so _motherly."_

" _Hey!_ Like hell I am! ... _What_ did you think that I was a horrible enough person to just let a toddler run around after a tantrum like that without even cooling her down first?!"

"No! No I just didn't think...Never mind fratello!"

The truth was that Romano knew that trick from when he himself was younger and Antonio would do that to him, he acted like a doting mother when parenting him, while it was embarrassing at the time, it at least could come in handy now.

"Yeah that's right, never mind...Anyway let's get her some food."

The warm sounds of "El Divo" was left on as Romano sat Phoebe down at the kitchen table, the twins sat on either side of her. As a countering measure a towel was placed around her neck as they were able to settle down to eat. Luckily Feliciano took care of feeding her small bites of the pasta, the sauce somehow getting everywhere on the toddler as the carnage reached even up to her eyebrows, this being due to the fact that she would randomly grab bits of pasta to try and feed herself….It didn't work.

"How in the….Wait!"

Romano checked the back of the toddler's head and sighed.

"Feliciano there's marinara sauce on the back of her head."

"Oh….Alright little one, time for a bath!"

Feliciano took the toddler into the bathroom while Romano cleaned up the kitchen, she hadn't even been there but for a few hours and already he had a splitting headache, he was exhausted, the kitchen was a _mess_ and he already hated cleaning as it was! Despite that annoyance he was just finishing up with the last bowl when he heard Feliciano calling his name for help.

"Ugggh why?!"

There was no response, only loud splashing noises as he groaned.

"There better not be water all over the floor!"

Sometimes he just had to learn how to shut his mouth. When he got into the bathroom there was more water on the ground then there was in the tub, the little girl was encased in a thick layer of bubbles and his brother was dripping wet.  
"What the-...You know what, why do I even bother asking?! Here you get cleaned up, i'll get her done."

Romano set about his work grumbling as he rolled up his sleeves and began to wash her hair with the special shampoo that they had gotten that was supposed to be good for kids, all he knew was that it filled the air with the sickly sweet scent of fake apples.

"You know, you could just _not_ splash us and make a mess all the time…"

Phoebe stared at him with curious eyes and reached up to smack her hands on the water again, apparently thinking that this was all a part of some big game.

"No! Don't you da-"

Phoebe brought her hands down on the water, the water landing all around the bathroom but mostly all over his face.  
'"Dare…...You're a little jerk, you know that?"

Phoebe merely giggled as her hair was lathered in the thick bubbles, it stuck out in odd places as he worked.

"Alright well if you're going to be here then you're going to have to know my name and say it, it's the least you can do to make up for splashing me! I'm Romano, easy enough!"

Phoebe watched him, slowly working some of the syllables out until she came up with something that was at least close to his name.

"Ro….Rom….Romi-...Romie!"

"Wait, wait just a minute. No that's not my name, my name is Romano, try again! Ro-Man-O. If you're smart enough to make such a _mess_ then you get my name right!"

Romano rinsed off her hair as the toddler thought and then looked up, grinning innocently.

"Romie!"

Thats it, thats all he could take for today, he would just have to live with that nickname for now. He got her rinsed off with a grumble and bundled her up in a fluffy warm towel that Feliciano brought back from drying his own clothes. It was warm and absolutely swallowed up the small toddler, she looked like an owl with only her face and wide eyes peeking out from the mound of towel.

"She's calling me Romie, _Romie!"_

As usual his brother just thought the mutilation of his name was the best thing ever as he dried off Phoebe's wispy hair.

"Thats adorable! She already has a nickname for you!"

"What?! It's not cute she's just doing it to annoy me, look at her!"

Romano gestured to the criminal in question, Phoebe looked at them with curious eyes, then she waved at Romano.

"Romie!"

"...Augh fine, whatever let's just get her to bed."

Phoebe was dressed in a long fuzzy nightgown that was decorated with kittens as Feliciano picked her up to tuck her into bed.  
"Coming Romano? You should tuck her in, she loves you!"

"Yeah yeah and the Popes Protestant, kids love you, the last thing she would want is to see my face before she goes to sleep. _Good night_!"

As quickly as he could he escaped to his bedroom, _finally_ he could get some peace and quiet, plus some much needed sleep. It didn't take long for him to get into his pj's, brush his teeth and then to fall asleep on his cushy bed that was blessedly toddler free.

 _***Midnight ***_

When a person is being watched as they sleep, most can usually tell and wake up. For others it takes a toddlers crying to do that. Like him.

"What the…."

Romano sat up, his eyes had hardly opened when he heard what was now familiar crying right beside his bed. He fully opened his weary eyes and stared right into the face of a sobbing toddler, Phoebe was holding onto her stuffed teddy bear and was also sobbing like a banshee, but most importantly she was out of _bed_ and in his bedroom. That should have been nearly impossible seeing as how toddler beds came with rails on them like hospital beds to keep the dang kids from climbing _out of them!_

"Phoebe what are you doing out of bed eh?!"

Obviously she didn't respond, merely crying until he begrudgingly picked her up and rocked her for a few minutes. Her hiccuping sobs calmed down with each exhausted sway that he gave.

"There, happy now?"

Phoebe tucked her head onto his chest, hugging her bear close to her.

"I'm taking that as a yes, come on."

He carried her off to the guest room and placed her back in her bed, even taking the time to tuck her in, in the hopes that it would clam her and maybe the tight sheets would be enough to keep her from wandering.

"Don't you dare tell Feliciano that I did this, ok?..Now go the f-...Just go back to sleep!"

Romano left her in the bed and started to head back to his bedroom when he heard the pattering of small feet, he turned around slowly with a groan to see Phoebe, about ready to start the waterworks again.

"What are you, an imprinted _duck_?! I'm not your mother, go back to sleep in _your_ room!"

He tried in vain to herd her back to her bed but the moment that he sat her back down she stood on the bed, arms outreached to him and sobbing again.

"Augh _fine_ , i'm not going to be able to get any sleep anyway!"

Romano took her back to his room and sat her on the bed beside him.

"Jeez you're as bad as my brother! Just go to sleep!"

Within seconds Phoebe was asleep, sprawled out on a pillow and clutching onto her teddy bear. When her snores were soft and calm, Romano let out a sigh.

"At least she doesn't sound too loud."

With that he turned over and fell back to sleep, hoping to get more peace in his second half of sleep than he had his first.

In the morning Romano woke up to Phoebe being gone, for a second he was relieved until he realized something. If she wasn't there then _where_ was she? Also, was every moment of babysitting just going to be _panic?!_

"AH! Crap Phoebe, you better not be messing up anything!"

Romano searched around the house until with a chill of the spine he heard the toilet flush.

"Oh no….."

Inside the bathroom his worst suspicions were confirmed, Phoebe was sitting on the toilet, tossing in toilet paper and trying to flush it, but the thing was that there was already three rolls in the toilet and she couldn't get it to flush anymore.

"...Phoebe….. _Why?!"_

The toddler merely looked up at him with those owlish eyes and then back down at the toilet.

"...White!"

"Yeah well I can see that!"

Romano hurried over and picked her up and away from it, she merely looked up at him, patting his nose.

" _No_ don't act cute now! Look at what you did!"

Phoebe coocked her head to the side and giggled, hugging his neck.

"Romie!"

"Augggh you're going to be the death of me, you know that?!"

His only reply was another giggle and so he marched out to Feliciano's room, knocking loudly on the door, there was no way he was dealing with this little kid before he had coffee. Phoebe swung in his arms, still playing the part of being an adorable toddler but Romano knew the truth by now.

"Wake up Feliciano, you've got to take this demon child now!"

It only took a few minutes for his incessant knocking to be answered, a tried but somehow happy Feliciano answering the door.

"Romano you shouldn't call her that! But _si_ , I'll take the cute little bambino!"

Romano eagerly traded off to his brother, the girl giggling and playing with his hair as Feliciano cuddled her close, gushing over her in Italian.

"She's not cute, she made a mess of the bathroom, stuffing toilet paper into the toilet! She's a little demon i'm telling you!"

"Awww Romano how could you say that to such a cute little bambino?!"

As if to prove his point he held Phoebe out as she giggled, swinging her little chubby legs like she was on a swingset.

"Romie!"

"...She still can't get my name right."

With that he went to the bathroom, an ever present grumble under his breath as he fixed up the mess that she had left behind, when he made it back to the kitchen for breakfast Phoebe was in her high chair and getting fed her breakfast of some yogurt, grape juice and soft bread. Romano sat down to his plate of breakfast pastries and a large cup of coffee, his brother anticipating that he would be needing the extra large cup today.

"Thanks."

Feliciano took a second from his cooking and feeding to nod to him before going right back to singing to Phoebe as he gave her small bits of the bread and spoonfuls of yogurt, letting her try and hold her own sippy cup of juice as well.

"Look at her, she eats so much, she'll be so nice and strong!"  
"Au-huh….That's _fascinating_."

He was only halfway through his cup of coffee and it'd take a lot longer for him to actually be hospitable this morning, especially after his rude awakening.

Phoebe finished off her cup of juice with ease and then looked up at the two with hopeful eyes, holding up her now empty sippy cup.

"Juice?"

Feliciano almost immediately jumped up to get her some but Romano had to stop this, someone had to make sure the kid didn't end up spoiled.  
"Ey don't spoil her! It's not good for toddlers to have too much juice you know, it's too sugary!"

"Oh but Romano, look at her, she's asking so nicely!"

" _No_ we are not spoiling her!"

He looked at Phoebe and sighed at the hopeful face, she really did look so excited…

"No bambino, no more juice."

At that Phoebe merely just asked again, before tossing her sippy cup in his direction as if that would persuade him.

"Juice?!"

"No Phoebe, you'll rot your teeth if you get too much."

Phoebe looked down as if thinking, then her eyes crinkled up and her face began to turn red like a volcano about to erupt.

"Ah crapola…."

The toddler began to screech, her legs thumping on the high chair as she kicked and cried.

"JUICE! WANT _JUICE_!"

"Noooooooo Phoebe, stop it, you're not getting any!"

The toddler didn't listen and continued on with her tantrum, reaching ear splitting decibels as she screeched and cried. This torture continued on for a good ten minutes as the twins tried to distract her, offering her water and food but anything was within her reach was just slapped or kicked away. She truly sounded like she was possessed by some sort of juice loving demon.

"Alright, it's been ten minutes! Should I call the priest or something eh?"

"Romano no, she's just having a tantrum! Remember what Francis said? Just wait it out!"

They did. They waited and they waited but an _hour_ later she was still sobbing and Romano felt like joining her. Two tantrums in two days was really just too _much!_

"That's _it,_ i'm calling the priest, that kids possessed!"

" _Romano!"_

Romano groaned and banged his head down on the table, then grabbed his cell phone.

"Fine! Fine, i'll just call the tomato bast-...Agh I _hate_ having a kid in the house,I can't even cuss!"

Romano called Antonio amid the sobbing and crying, muttering under his breath until he picked up with a cheerful " _hola!"_

"Tomato bast- _agh!_ Look how do you get a kid to stop crying, she sounds like she's possessed by a demon or something, she hasn't stopped for an _hour_! I'm desperate D-...Just help us!"

Romano held out the phone to Phoebe as she screeched, trying to slap it away but he snatced it back quickly before she messed up his phone in her rampage.

" _See?!_ Now you better help us before I go crazy!"

For a moment the phone was silent until Antonio finally spoke up.

"Did you make sure she's not sick or anything like that? She doesn't need water, or?..."

"Yes yes we checked everything, she's just upset because I wouldn't spoil her by giving her more juice!"

"Ohhhhh That's it then! Just leave!"

"...Sorry, what?"

"You heard me Romano, you two leave her alone! Once she doesn't have anyone to cry to she'll stop!"

"Are you _kidding_ me?! There's no way that'd work!"

"Just try it Romano! Trust me! Now I have to go but good luck!"

With a click their only other help was gone and Romano was left with the sobbing toddler and an exhausted Feliciano.

"Alright here!"

Romano took Phoebe's high chair and turned it around to face the wall, he checked to make sure that she couldn't hurt herself and then dragged his brother out of the room, finally escaping the toddler's cries.

"What are you doing, what if she hurts herself?!"

"Well this is what Antonio said so we're going to try it, besides my head feels like it's about to _split_ anyway!"

Romano headed to the bathroom to get some medicine for his headache, leaving Feliciano standing worriedly beside the kitchen door. That wasn't his problem though if his brother wanted to be a doting guardian then he could, as for himself he had to get some pain killers.

In the bathroom Romano took his medications, groaning as he did so.

"At least it's quiet in here…."

He took the pills dry and then pressed a cold rag to his forehead, trying to keep the pounding at bay. His head was just pounding louder and louder, like someone trying to knock down a door...Wait.

"Romano! Romano come look!"

The door was flung open as Romano stared into the eyes of his brother with utter fury, his headache in full force now.

"You _better_ have a good reason for this!"

"I _do_ , I do! Come on!"

Following Feliciano's spastic waving Romano followed him to the kitchen where he stood in utter shock.

It was _quiet_. Other than a bit of babbling from Phoebe it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop, it was the most beautiful thing that he had _not_ heard in his entire long life.

"She's….She's quiet."

Romano stood still again before speaking a little louder to test and see if Phoebe would cry again.

"She's not crying…"

Romano glanced at Feliciano who nodded and so he walked over slowly to Phoebe's high chair and turned it around. In the chair Phoebe sat grumpily, face red and blotched but she didn't make a move to cry again.

"...Ah, finally done then?"

Romano reached out and picked the small toddler up by the arms, hoisting her into his arms as he walked back to the guest room, the toddler slumped over exhausted onto his shoulder.

"Don't _ever_ do that again, you'll just make yourself and everyone else miserable alright?"

Phoebe didn't respond as he set her down back into her bed, tucking the blankets around her.

"There now take a nap or something."

With that the toddler was out almost immediately and Romano went to his room, flopping face first into the sheets and falling asleep to his head pounding.

After that incident Phoebe's tantrums calmed down as she quickly realized who was the boss, that being Romano of course. Not Feliciano though. He couldn't be the boss to a toddler even if he tried, so that left Romano being the one to make sure the child wasn't spoiled, just as he thought would happen. Their days had become a somewhat stable schedule of naps, playtime, TV time and food, with this new addition thought up by Feliciano just today.

"Romano are you ready?"

"Yeah yeah I am...Though I don't see why I have to go with you to get the kid some exercise!"

"Because Romano, when's the last time you went out for a walk either?"

"...It's the middle of winter, no one walks in winter!"

"Sure Romano."

Feliciano stopped helping Romano dress Phoebe and went to the window, opening it to sunshine and birds chirping.

"...It's still winter."

"Si Romano.."

However that was the end of the conversation and he knew it, so with an agitated sigh he helped Phoebe into her small tennis shoes. Feliciano abandoned him to go pack the picnic lunch, leaving him with Phoebe's shoes half off and unkempt hair.

"No, don't bend your foot! Just let me...augh!"

There was only one shoe halfway on and he was already frustrated, they went through this every morning where she just didn't want to put on her shoes. Finally, he resorted to bribery to avoid another headache inducing tantrum.

"Now listen here Phoebe, you put this dam-..Put the shoe on and i'll let you bring a toy."

Phoebe eyes him curiously for a minute before repeating back to him, wondering.

"Toy?"

"Yeah, yeah toy! Now look if _I_ have to go on this walk then _you_ do too!"

Phoebe looked at him before offering up her foot for the shoe. Romano slid them on quickly before she could change her mind and surveyed the state of her hair...It was a wreak.

"Alright Phoebe just stay here, eh?"

There was something that Feliciano used on her hair to make it not hurt so she wouldn't cry...He found the green bottle with the picture of a disgustingly happy octopus waving hair products, her hairbrush, and finally some sparkly pink hairbows before he returned to the girl, having her stand in front of him while he sat on the bed.

"Alright now don't move an inch alright? I've got to prove to everyone that I can do hair, did you hear Francis last night when he called Feliciano?!"

He imitated the Frenchman's voice by making his own voice nasally and high pitched with a tinge of "posh" to it.

"Oh Feliciano how is your brother handling the petite girl, has he been helping out or anything? Does he even help with hair or dressing her? Honhonhonhon i'm a stupid face who eats snails!"

Romano let out a "huff' as he sprayed down her hair and started to brush it out, working carefully on the knots as he vented out to the confused toddler.

"And then he goes "Feliciano if you need help big brother France is here!", like who does he think he is eh? _I'm_ his brother, _i'm_ the one helping here!"

He got finished on one side and brushed the other side, then got started on placing the thin wispy hair into two thin side ponytails.

"I mean did he just forget that i'm here?! I do stuff! I fixed your tantrum the other day! I even let you sleep with me at night! But _no_ he just thinks that I sit here!"

He grunted and finished up, smoothing down her flyaways and checking her over again carefully.

"You know for a little demon you do listen well."

Phoebe looked at him and pat his nose happily.

"Toy! Get toy?"

"Yeah sure kid, you earned it from having to listen to me run my mouth."

Phoebe went over to her bed and grabbed her favorite teddy bear and shuffled her way back to him, holding it out to him.

"Hug."

"Eh? No the toy isn't for me, it's for you."

Phoebe went over and clumsily hauled herself up to sit beside him, setting the bear in his lap.

"Hug!"

Romano did this and she nodded to him, finally smiling.

"Eh...You understood that huh?...Feliciano did say to be careful what I said around you...Something about kids understanding emotions or some other crap."

Phoebe just kept on that grin as he scooped her up, the small child in one hand and teddy bear in another.

"Come on demon, we've got a walk to go on….And thanks."

Out in the Italian countryside the air was mild and crisp, the sun shining bright and some birds were out to roam for lost seed. The trio finally stopped on their walk in front of the grapevines that were about a mile away, they ended up carrying Phoebe for the last stretch of it but she made it far enough that Feliciano declared the walk to be a success.

"Yeah yeah, get the blanket so I can set her down."

The warm wool blanket was set down and Romano sat down with a huff, Phoebe sitting contentedly in his lap.

"Ugh why do you insist on exercise?"

"Because it's good for a little bambino! Besides, if I don't Ludwig might yell at me…"

"Ah so it's because of _him_ then, hmm?"

Before an argument could start Phoebe plopped off of his lap, suddenly full of energy now that she could play, and started to wander down to the grapevines.  
"Ay demon! Don't wander too far!"

Romano ignored his brother in favor of keeping track of Phoebe, the little girl traveled carefully around the roots of the bare vines, wandering cautiously over stones and around posts. Finally she picked up a scrap of vine and came back to them, bending it and wandering back up the short dirt path to them, she tripped once but got up and kept on going with her prize. Phoebe went up to the twins and showed them her findings. Feliciano took the vine gently and started to bend it expertly, twisting and gently molding it until it resembled a crown and then placed it on her head.

"There! A perfect crown for a perfect princess!"

Small chubby hands went up and patted her head until she broke out into laughter, keeping the vine crown snug on her head.

"Pret….Pretty! I pretty!"

"Uh-huh, you are pretty, isn't she Romano?"

The toddler looked to Romano for affirmation, all he wanted to do was take a nap just then but he nodded.

"Yup, really pretty with a twig on your head…"

Phoebe's face almost started to fall but he fixed his mistake quickly.

"A pretty twig alright? Yes you're pretty!...Very pretty, princess."

Her face began to lift into a bright smile again as she waddled over, hugging onto his arm. Her smile was wide enough to make small dimples appear on her chubby cheeks.

"Romie! Pretty! I pretty!"

"Yeah yeah you look like a princess, go off and play ok?"

Phoebe nodded and wandered off again, allowing Romano to lay back in the mild sun, leaving Feliciano to watch over the little princess. As they left to go home and get her ready for bed Phoebe refused to let the makeshift crown be taken off of her, no matter how much they bribed, scolded or almost pleaded every time it was taken off of her head the girl would sob, so they were forced to let her keep it on. From that day forward it became a regular staple of her outfit.

As the days drew closer to Christmas the twins were busier and busier with their nation duties, keeping citizens safe during the holidays, working out tourism and finance, that sort of thing. Well, Feliciano was busy with that sort of thing at least, Feliciano would go off to work with their boss and leave Romano with babysitting duty. The joke was on him though, this meant that Romano had someone to talk to in the house, usually when this happened he would be at home alone and this year he had someone with him!

True that person was a two year old who couldn't even feed herself without getting food on the back of her head but still, it was a person! At any rate, every day they had a sort of routine. Romano and Feliciano would get Phoebe out of bed, give her back her "crown" for the day and then Feliciano would leave for meetings, with that Romano and Phoebe would start their own day.

They ate breakfast, played some games in the house for a while (he once even taught her how to dance a little, at least Phoebe appreciated his absolutely astounding dancing skills), then he would take her on that mile long walk to go to the vineyard.

There he would sit down and usually just let her roam around, but today he just felt the need to rant, he had been feeling agitated since the week before Christmas started and needed to get at least one thing off of his chest. Plus, this kid was sort of growing on him now. She was young yeah but seemed to care when he said stuff, like she was trying to absorb every word. It was….Almost endearing.

"Alright so Phoebe, I need you to listen carefully ok?"

The toddler turned to him and nodded, plopping down in front of him on the grass.

"Good, so I owe this shady guy some money but I don't _want_ to work any to get it, plus you'd think he would have more respect for the man that makes his nation possible! I mean I already have a job, _being_ South Italy! What do you think?"

Phoebe pondered this question for a few seconds before shrugging.

"...Don't…..No money?"

"No you're right, I don't have to give him any money!...Huh, thanks Phoebe...here I am confiding in a two year old...Whatever at least you're here, Feliciano is always off in some boring meeting or whatever, which I _should_ be at but i'm here babysitting…Not knowing what's going on at the meeting but apparently that doesn't matter eh, as long as _Feliciano_ knows!"

Phoebe looked at him with a concerned expression, she looked at her sippy cup and offered him the only comfort she could.

"Juice?...Want juice?"

Romano sighed softly and shook his head, letting her hold onto her sippy cup herself.

"No, but thanks Phoebe, at least you listen to me…"

It was true, while Feliciano did listen to him he was still the golden one, the more important half of the Vargas brothers….But Phoebe didn't think that. To her Romano was someone she turned to. Even though he was probably the most unpleasant person to be around every morning she still went to him first, if she hadn't already tried to sleep in his bed the night before….This kid was actually….Really sweet.

"Hey Phoebe, you're my princess alright? No matter what at least I have my Princess….Right?"

The toddler looked at him with confused eyes that said that she had not understood a word that he had been rambling on about but she nodded happily.

"I'm princess!"

"You're _a_ princess, you need to get your grammar right!"

"...I'm princess!"

Well, he had to admit when he was defeated and so he just sat back on the dry grass.

"We can work on that later princess."

His princess nodded and got back to her playtime, oblivious to his revelations of the day. He knew though that at the end of the month he couldn't give her up, how was he supposed to? She gave him something to do, someone to talk to when the Christmas season came, making Feliciano busy and Romano...Alone.

The end of the month came quicker than expected and the small group passed a pleasant enough Christmas together but Romano couldn't keep his mind on the festivities, all he could think of how in a few days he would have to give Phoebe back up to the orphanage and what then? She was only two, she would lose all memory of him taking care of her, then he would just be some other visitor to the orphanage, no one of importance, just like everyone else. These thought made the Christmas season pass all the faster until before he knew it, the date for her to go back to the orphanage was tomorrow.

The day before he took a bit longer to get her dressed, feed her breakfast and play. When she begged for more juice as usual he actually gave her some more which shocked her half to death, when she wanted to play the same game for the hundredth time he didn't give up as he usually did and instead played it over and over again with her. Even Phoebe seemed surprised by this sudden change in him and would stop sometimes to stare at him with her wide eyes.

"Ok?...Romie ok?"

Looking up from where he was reading her a storybook, the third of the day Romano nodded.

"Yeah i'm ok princess…..Now listen up here, we've got to figure out what happened to Snow White eh?"

The toddler seemed satisfied with that vague answer and went back to looking at the story book with him. Even though he read for her, his mind was elsewhere. How was he just supposed to give her up?...The answer was no, there was no way he could do it, and he _refused_ to do it. He deserved just this much in his life, didn't he?

Later that night Romano talked to Feliciano as they cleared away the kitchen, bracing himself for his brothers dramatics.

"I've decided that i'm adopting Phoebe."

Just as expected, his brother turned to him looking utterly shocked and already rambling on, he could be so overly dramatic.

"What?! But Romano you don't have a child proof house, you….What if she get's sick or….You're a _nation_ what happens when she grows older and you don't?! And you can't take care of her, what about your job?!"

"You think I care about that?! Who cares anyway, so what if I don't grow older, I'll just explain it to her! Besides, i'm not needed for my job, _you_ do it anyway."

Feliciano couldn't answer to that and so Romano strove on, wanting to get his argument out there before he could start up again.

"And another thing, she _needs_ me! Don't you dare tell me that she will be perfectly happy in an orphanage without any family to look after her!...Don't you see?! She likes _me_ more than my "golden boy brother"!...She likes _me!..._ If you think it's such a bad idea for me to be her guardian then why would you make me babysit her so much, Eh?"

"Because….You needed someone to keep you company when I was away at all those meetings...You're always lonely during Christmas…."

"Like Hell I am!...Besides like you said, it doesn't matter I have Phoebe and like hell i'm giving her up now!"

"You know we can't keep her…"

From there the argument just grew, Romano debating his brother on why he needed Phoebe there with him and why she needed him back. They argued for a good hour, Romano not giving up or at least, not without a fight. In the end though...

Feliciano won.

He couldn't keep a kid and while he always knew this it stung to have that fact so rudely pointed out to him. The next day Romano took his sweet time getting Phoebe ready to go back to the orphanage, talking to her throughout it all.

"Now…...Don't you dare forget me princess, ok? I'll be checking in to make sure that you remember me…"

"I won't Romie! I remember! I remember!"

Romano smiled down at his little princess, she was a little angel, that's what she was.

"Thats right, you remember and if you see Ludwig with my brother in the airport…

"I hit!"

"That's my good princess!"

Phoebe hugged him tightly around the legs, giving his knee an exaggerated kiss before patting it and waddling away to the car, her backpack stuffed full of her Christmas gifts. Feliciano picked her up, letting her look behind to the small cottage as he took her to the car.

"Bye Romie! Bye bye Romie!"

"Ah…..Goodbye princess!...I'll see you soon!"

With that his little princess was loaded into a car and driven away to the airport, he himself went inside and placed _El Divo_ on full volume while he cleaned out Phoebe's room. Everything was done by the end of the album, when the album stopped he was left with silence once again.

 _***Twenty years later***_

 _I was adopted by a couple when I was two years old and moved to Nice, France. I don't really remember much of my orphanage years, (I mean I was only two years old after all) except for one item that whenever I look at it I have to smile and I don't really know why. It's a small, brittle grape vine that has been molded into the shape of a crown….Whoever gave this to me, I hope that they're happy because they deserve it for showing kindness to an orphan. I really hope to meet them one day, but when talking to Marie (who is apparently a friend from the orphanage, her address was given to me by a worker at my old orphanage) she suggested that I visit Italy. I have no idea why, but who knows, I might just find what I'm looking for._


	6. America

Ok so he thought that he was ready for this, after all, what kid doesn't love America? Besides, how hard could it be? Francis had assured him that he would have an older kid so he wouldn't have to worry about anything gross like diapers or bath time, so that means that this should be a snap!

Right!

Yeah?

Hopefully.

Alfred thought all this out as he paced in his Virginia home, the place he had picked to foster the kid. Virginia was calmer than his New York home in the city and so he was less likely to lose a child, _unless_ he took them to Washington DC, which was a mere metro ride away...Hey...Thats wasnt a bad idea…

Whoa ok, he was getting off track. He only had ten minutes before Francis and the kid got there from the airport and he had to be ready and prove that he was the best babysitter around! After all, Americans were the best at everything, right? So with this in mind he checked his house, everything was kid proof but not insultingly so in case the kid really was a lot older. For fun, he had board games and even got some books from a sweet older lady the apartment above in New York, plus more from other bookstores scattered around the house, more for the look than anything.

His guest room was ready with new sheets and his fridge was stocked full, and just to show that good "southern hospitality" he had a BBQ pig roasting in the backyard. If just the ribs were good then the _whole pig_ must be better, right? Who cared if it was the dead of winter, BBQ was good all the time! Besides that he had all the fixings needed, such as beans, coleslaw, corn, rolls, potato salad, and banana pudding. He had _no_ idea why banana pudding was so huge in his southern states but it just was, so he had it here.

With these checks out of the way he was ready for the kid themselves. He hoped they were pretty cool, after all he had so much to show them! There were farms in Virginia, haunted spots to check out, and his capital to explore with the museums and monuments. It was the true American experience and he couldn't wait to showcase it all.

There was the sound of tires making their way up the road and Alfred dashed to the front door to greet his guests.

"Hey guys, whats up? How was your trip?!"

It took a few minutes for Francis to get up to the steps of the classic colonial style house, but when he got closer he saw an exhausted Francis and a thin girl dressed in a thick black dress and clutching onto a thick book. The kid couldn't have been older than ten years old, so at least Alfred didn't have to worry about awkwardly watching over a teenager.

"Heya, whats wrong Francis? Oh and who's this?"

"Whats wrong is that your countries traffic is atrocious, but we got here. Finally. Anyway, this is Martha, and i'm sure you will have no trouble with her."

Martha nodded silently, looking up to Alfred and extending her hand formally.

"It's nice to meet you sir."

"Awwww you're so polite! That's adorable!"

Alfred grinned and shook her hand quickly.

"Well let's get on inside, BBQ waits for no man!"

Martha waved to Francis before gathering her backpack, Alfred grabbed her suitcase and they left Francis to brave another taxi ride to the city.

"What is BBQ?

"Oh you're going to love it, trust me!"

Inside the house it smelled like pine from the giant Christmas tree that he had in the living room, on the walls were old historical maps, as they went to the guest room there were more and more old antiques lining the walls. It gave the house a sophisticated feeling that he didn't have at his New York apartment, so he used this place for hosting dinner parties for important people like a new President or world leaders. He didn't like it that much, since it was a little stuffy for his taste but then again politicians were typically stuffy so they loved this house. Although he would love to see some world leaders hanging out in his New York apartment surrounded by all of his video game posters and stacks upon stacks of comic books….Yeah maybe not the best idea.

"Your house is lovely."

"Huh? Oh yeah I guess so, it's a little fancy for my tastes, but hey it impresses people right?"

"Yes it does."

With that she was silent and merely looked around as he led her up to the guest room. The guest room had it's own fireplace, with a huge king sized bed and all around there were some more of those historical maps. Since it was way too stuffy for a kids room he had added one of his old Xboxes, a computer and even a few modern books that the lady at Barnes and Noble said was popular with the kids. With all of this he hoped to make the room feel a bit less like a museum and more like home.

"Sooooooo do ya like it?"

"Yes, its as lovely as the rest of the house."

Martha's eyes glanced to the books and he laughed a bit.

"Don't worry you can read after dinner, I have a lot to show you in the meantime!"

Martha nodded and set her stuff down on the bed, smoothed out her dress primly and then followed him as he showed her around the bathroom, the rest of the upstairs, save one room, and then down to the kitchen. Her face was calm and didn't really show much emotion until he got her to the kitchen where the feast fit for a king was spread out over the large table.

"...How many people are we expecting for dinner?"

"What do you mean, this is just for us!"

"Just for us?"

"Yup! Don't worry, we can eat on this for a few days!"

"...Do you perhaps mean to say a few weeks?"

"Nah, a few days."

"That doesn't sound very good for our colons."

"Hey what are you, a doctor? We'll be fine, trust me! I do this all the time!"

"...You do?"

"Yup! And look at me, i'm in the prime of my life and healthy as a horse!"

"...Ok."

Alfred grinned and waved the incredulous girl to a seat.

"You'll see! Now I'm gonna go check on the BBQ, hang tight ok?"

"I will do that."

She was so formal…..Oh well, a few days and she'll loosen up, at least she was super polite, better than having a brat at least. Alfred went outside to check on the BBQ and he hurried since it was cold as heck out there. The BBQ pit smelled like the entrance to third heaven as he opened it up and inside was the perfect BBQ pig. It was glorious, and if he wasn't such a strong man it might have brought tears to his eyes from it's absolute perfection. However there wasn't time to admire it, he had to get it ready to eat. So he prepared it and brought it in on three huge stacks of oversize foil pans.

"Here's the main attraction, the glorious, the wonderful, BBQ!"

"...Is that an _entire_ pig?"

"You bet it is!"

Alfred set the trays on the only remaining space left on the long table and gestured to the whole spread.

"Enjoy!"

Martha looked around her with slightly wide eyes as she whispered.

"Where do I even start?"

"Anywhere dude! Oh and don't feel shy about getting seconds, ok?"

"...Yes sir."

With that settled he happily dived into the food himself, heaping large amounts of BBQ onto a bun, slathering it in BBQ sauce and then getting all the sides, letting them all mix together. The only thing he kept quarantined was the banana pudding, since even he couldn't stomach the thought of bananas mixing with baked beans. When he looked over Martha had hardly even started to fix her plate.

"Hey whatchu waitin for?...Oh I get it, you're being polite again right? Don't worry it's not rude to fix your own plate, but here, let me help you!"

Alfred glanced at her thin frame and started to load up her plate with BBQ and sides, the kid needed to gain some muscles so she could be strong when she grew up!

"Here ya go, much better!"

Martha stared with even wider eyes at the mound of food and started to slowly eat it as he sat down to eat. By the time she had finished a mere half of her plate he had gone for seconds.

"So what do you think?"

"...I like the BBQ, even if it is _odd_...But what is this?"

She poked at her coleslaw and he shrugged.

"It's coleslaw, don't worry if you don't like it, most people have to get used to it first before they like it."

"Ah I see…"

With that Martha pushed the offending food aside and settled on slowly eating her BBQ. With a few bites of beans, a little of her pudding and most of her sandwich she pushed aside her plate and said she was done.

"Is that all you're going to eat?"

"Yes I think so."

"Ah, i'm going to have to build up your appetite aren't I? That's fine though!"

He grinned and scooped off her plate, taking it to the nearby sink.

"If you're ready for bed you can go ahead and get ready, you must be really jetlagged huh?"

"Yes I am, thank you for the meal."

Martha left, leaving Alfred with an almost full table full of food.

"Mhmmm...I have a lot of work to do...Oh well, nothing I can't handle!"

He was used to hosting large parties so he had the table cleared off in an instant, and he soon called up to check on Martha, thankful once again that she was old enough he didn't have to help her.

"Hey you good?"

"Yes sir!"

"Ok then, good night!"

So Martha was a little stuffy, kind of like the house but he knew that he could get her to loosen up eventually, maybe tomorrow he'd take her to the park or something and that should get her to act...Well more like a kid. Or maybe he'd buy a new XBox to play here at his house to bond, and totally not because he just wanted a new one….

"Dude, Martha, time to wake up!"

He heard nothing and so he went up the long narrow steps and knocked on her door, it was nearly noon and it was going to kill his plans if she slept in much longer, as for himself he had been up since five, had drunk three cups of coffee and had already gone for an early morning jog out to the countryside so he felt _great_! Now it was time for her to wake up as well.

"I'm up sir!"

He heard a vague shuffling from inside and out came Martha in a bathrobe with a tired expression.

"Hey good to see ya,I thought you were going to sleep in all day!"

"I might have…"

"Yeah, good thing I woke you up then huh?"

"Yes sir…"

"Oh hey, thanks for reminding me Martha! But there's no need to call me sir, ok? It makes me feel old or something."

"Oh...I'm sorry s-..."

"Alfred, just call me by my name. No one's going to kill ya for it."

"...Yes ."

Well that was at the very least closer, so he could work on the "mister" later.

"Good, now i'll make brunch while you get ready, dress warmly!"

"I was not aware that we were going anywhere today…"

"What, you didn't think i'd let you come all the way here and not let you look around a little? No way!"

"Oh."

"Now go on, go on!"

He pushed her gently back into her room, a wide grin on his face.

"See you in a few!"

Breakfast that morning was another American treat, potatoes, scrambled eggs and bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. Lord he loved bacon. He had the bacon sock to prove it too.

There was the faint sound of feet down the stairs and he turned to her grinning.

"Hey! Just in time!"

He gave her a plate of the eggs, bacon and fried potatoes, then sat down with his own plate.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yes ."

"Good! Any weird dreams?"

"No ."

"Ah...Great!"

"Yes."

Well this was going nowhere fast.

"Ok so here's what we are going to do today, we're going to go see Mount Vernon! Cool huh?"

"You mean the home of George Washington?"

"Yeah! Hey you're pretty smart for your age!"

Martha shrugged as she pushed her eggs around her plate.

"It's not that hard to remember…"

"Ah but still, I can tell you're smart! Anyway, you're going to love it there, they have the place lit up by candlelight tonight since it's almost Christmas Eve!"

"Well...Thank you, i'd love to see such a historic site."

"Yeah not to mention the hot chocolate!"

Martha nodded and stood, done with her plate she cleaned it off herself this time before going to get ready. He followed her lead and in only a few short minutes they were on the road to go see the house. Since his house was a ways away from the city it took a little longer than he would have liked to get to the site, but it was worse since the drive there was….Awkward, to say the least. Martha was just so quiet and polite that Alfred found it hard to talk to her, and so at least at he wouldn't have to talk as much and could instead just show her around. They approached the gate of the house and could see only a dirt road leading up to rolling hills where far in the distance they could see some of the buildings on the site, like the museum and the top of the house itself with it's golden eagle wind gauge.

"Ah, here we are! What do you want to see first?"

"I don't mind what we see first ."

"...Ok but what do you want to see first?"

"I will let you choose."

"...Ok."

With a tiny sigh to himself Alfred got out of the car and started to lead her to the actual house first since it was way too cold to see any of the gardens or barns, and a tomb right off of the bat seemed a bit too much with a kid in tow. So, to the house it was then!

Alfred always found himself visiting whenever he was in Washington DC, more so than any other place, even more than the Air and Space museum. The reason was simple really, it was the workers. They all wore colonial attire and had to answer in that same kind of speech, acting as if they really were working for " " himself. If Alfred could just focus in on one of them then he could almost imagine he was back to when he first got his independance. It was just too tempting to resist that kind of "time travel."

"So, want to grab some hot chocolate first?"

"Yes, that would be nice."

Alfred led her up to the house, his step subconsciously picking up when he saw a lady with a bonnet and red cape on, and it was more than "time travel" this time, she had hot chocolate as well, killing two nostalgic birds with one stone.

"Hey, can we get some of that!"

The young lady grinned at them, and held out her tray of steaming styrofoam cups.

"Yes indeed sir, are you perhaps here to visit for Christmas? He always does enjoy a crowd for caroling!"

"Yeah he did…"

"Excuse me?"

"I mean I'm sure he did! Ok Martha, time to go, thanks for the hot chocolate!"  
Leaving an incredibly confused lady behind Alfred snatched two cups ands handed one to his little ward as they headed up to the house itself.

"...You said he _did_."

"Yup, I did because it's cold and cold makes you stupid, K?"

"I'm not sure that's how it works."

'Well it is because I said so and i'm older!"

"Bu-"

"Hey look, a donkey!"

Well he wasn't lying, there really was a donkey, and that would be way more interesting than having to explain the whole "hey yeah i'm actually America, the place you're standing on" thing. Not that he was allowed to do that, Francis had all of their lips clamped tight on pain of having to sit through more French grammar lessons then he had already forced them all to endure in preparation for the girls. Ugh that was the worst, but at least Martha spoke English….. So he didn't even have to go to them in the first place!...Ugh oh well.

"This hot chocolate is good."

"Hmm? Oh yeah it is! Oh hey here we are, one of my favorite rooms in the house!"

"This is the hallway…."

It was indeed, the hallway. On their left there was a series of steps leading up further into the house and more rooms on the floor that they were on.

"Well yeah but look, isnt it neat being about to the see the Potomac river so close by?"

The first room in the house was the hallways and only a few steps in front of them was the door that lead to porch that faced the giant river. That porch always reminded him of coffee and cake, since that's where him and Washington chatted after the war, with chastising him for his lack of manners, he felt like his mother sometimes.

"Yes I suppose it is a nice view."

" _Nice_? Dude it's the best view in Virginia!"

Martha shrugged, leaving Alfred to shake his head at this little French kid, at least he knew it was the best view. After all, the president couldn't be wrong about that.

After that they went through the rest if the house, the whole place lit up with candles and with period Christmas decorations lined up in every room around the old mansion. By the time Alfred had given his history spill about the chambers, study, dining room and even the staircase their hot chocolate was gone and they had gone through most of the house. Now while most normal kids would be annoyed by a random adults history Martha seemed much more at ease when he was chatting about people that had been dead for decades rather than herself. If it meant that he got the chance to go on and on about his Revolution era than Alfred was more than happy to oblige.

They ended back up at the porch where they found some not so Revolutionary era trashcans to toss their not so old styrofoam cups into.

"So, what did you think of the mansion?"

"Oh it was wonderful! I loved the detail in the paintings!"

"Yeah they were pretty awesome back then huh? I mean I like the modern stuff too but the old stuff was really impressive, you know?"

"Yes, I agree!"

Hey so this kid _could_ be brought to life. It seems like she wasn't so much of a zombie after all.

"Well if you liked that then you'll lose your mind over the library, come on!"

It was a short hike to the cold dirt roads to get to the modern library, it wasn't built back in Washington's day, but it was a huge resource for books and so he knew that she would love it.

The library held both old and new books, all dealing with George Washington or the era in some way, shape or fashion. Obviously he couldn't just let a kid wander through and touch the centuries old books but hey, no harm in looking right?

That's just what they did, the two looked through the books at the library and even read a couple of modern ones before going to the museum for its last fifteen minutes of being open. When they were finally forced out by a bored museum keeper they made their way back to the car, by far the last people to have come out.

"So, what did you think? Pretty awesome right?"

Martha glanced up at him, holding tightly onto a new historical novel that he had gotten her.

"Yes, it was very nice, thank you for the book."

"Ah it's nothing, trust me! I just hope you learn something from it."

"I will."

Another slightly awkward car ride back and they were back at his home just in time for a dinner of BBQ leftovers. After that he sent her off to bed like the day before and planned his next little adventure to get her to act more like a normal kid.

It was dark. Like...Really dark. Alfred groaned as his hands fumbled for his glasses and he groggily sat up, pulling his bedsheets closer to him since it was freezing cold in his room. He glanced towards the window and groaned even louder, as if that could make the colossal snowstorm right outside his flipping window go away.

"Dude seriously?! Augh, man I was so looking forward to showing her the city!"

With as many grumbles he could fit into his morning routine Alfred brushed his teeth, put on some new sweatpants, a sweater, and just generally got ready for a snowday all cooped up in the house. While he would usually love this sort of thing since it gave him the perfect chance to play video games, he did not appreciate this when he was trying to get a zombie kid to have fun. At least he might be able to get her to go outside with him since from the looks of it the snow wouldn't be stopping anytime soon and he'd have to stock up on some extra wood soon for the heat, or lack thereof. His toes and fingers felt like ice and he shoved on socks.

There was a small knock at his door and he hurried over to get it, outside his door was a obviously freezing cold Martha.

" , my room."

"Ah, fire die down in your room as well?"

Marth nodded silently as he groaned, looking outside his window at the quickly building snow.

"Yup…..I'm going to have to go out and get some wood from the shed…..Figures."

He shrugged and scooped up his boots from beside the door.

"I'll do that right now, you can head on and grab some more blankets if you want."

He got another half frozen nod and with that he trekked outside in the snow to get some wood for a house that was too old for anything else. It was times like this that he was grateful for the electricity in his New York apartment.

Outside it was, by his estimates, at arctic temperatures. At least that's what it felt like when he was hauling a stack of logs without any gloves, and only wearing sweatpants and a sweater because hey, "it can't take that long!" Sometimes he just needs to stop listening to himself.

Alfred slung the door open, letting the frigid air roll in behind him until he slammed the door shut again with his foot.

"Augh man it's so cold out there! Hey Martha, turn on the TV!"  
There was a small click and some static that came from the living room.

"Its out isnt it?"

"Yes ."

"Ah ok, i'll see what I can do."

His large stack of logs was slung over by the wood stove to dry off, he had to go check the state of his TV right then. When he got into the living room it was just as he had expected, the TV was showing only blurry lines of black and white static.

"Welp, looks like it's boardgames for us until it turns back on! Hey, you ever played Monopoly?"

Martha shrugged which he took to mean that no she hadn't, and that this kid needed some exposure to the best things in life, such as crushing your competition in imaginary lifelong debt!

"Oh well then you have to play it! It's really fun, I even got some of the other guys to play it...It didn't end the best but hey, this time it'll just be two of us!"

The game board was located in the closet of this house, in his apartment he had it laying out in his room along with all of his other games, but here he was expected to have the house of an "adult" and so that meant he couldn't just have Monopoly, Candyland, Clue and all the other _good_ games laying out for foreign ambassadors to see. They only liked boring games like Solitaire, Bingo and Scrabble.

"Where is it?"

His closet was a mess, it was hard containing all of the actually good stuff about this house into one small place, which is why it took him a good ten minutes of shuffling, searching and kicking to find the Monopoly box.

"Aha! Eureka! I've been looking for that game as well!"

He set that little can aside and turned to the real prize, the Monopoly board. He felt a bit like Indiana Jones as he had to blow off some dust from the game, it had been in the old house's closet for so long since this was his normal board, his other one was the really fun one with dares invented by him but some weren't _exactly_ kid friendly so he left that board alone.

"Good news Martha, I found it!"

"Oh."

Alfred came into the living room to find Martha bundled up in loads of blankets with her large novel resting on her knee.

"Don't worry, you can read later in France, I won't let you waste your time here like that!"

"But it is not wasting time!"

"Yeah but you could be talking to someone else instead, and that's a lot better, trust me!"

"Bu-"

"Here!"

Alfred placed the Monopoly board on the table before them and pulled up a chair since she had the couch. He quickly opened up the box and set out the board, making sure to snatch up the little car icon since that was his favorite.

"Ok so which piece do you want to play as?"

Martha looked at the box and frowned a bit, setting aside her book slowly.

"I suppose….The dog."

She grabbed it and set it down beside his with a tiny sigh.

"Have you ever played this before?"

"No."

Ah so that explained the hesitation, poor kid was probably afraid of being shown up since she had never played before.

"Well don't worry, it's easy to understand! Plus I'll take it easy on you!"

He shrugged and explained the rules to her as quickly as possible, then he went first to show her just how it was done. On the first roll he got to move ahead five spaces and grinned, gesturing to the board.

"See? Easy!"

Martha nodded silently and rolled, getting a one. Ouch. Despite this she put her piece on the board and the game began. Even though he did his best to be fair, Alfred crushed her. Like...It was really bad, but then again it was her first time playing. It still made him feel like a jerk though since she was just a kid, but at least she didn't seem all torn up about it. Her hands grabbed the book as soon as the game was over.

"Good game, you'll do better next time i'm sure!"

"Maybe...May I read now?"

"What? Dude no you need to help me make breakfast! I got an idea, we can make those crepe things, you'll like that right?"

"A crêpe?"

"Yeah that's what I said."

"...Yes, but you need to pronounce the _e_ a little more."

"Oh ok….But still do you want to eat some breakfast?"

Martha set aside her book quietly and slowly nodded, going to the kitchen where he handed her a small apron and took his own out.

"Ok so do you know a good recipe for crepes?"

"No, I am not a very good cook."

"Oh I thought you would be….Anyway, i'll find us one!"

Lucky for him he had plenty of data on his phone just for this kind of emergency and so he looked up some recipes for them and found one that seemed easy enough.

"Hey I think we can manage this!"

He shrugged with a grin as she glanced over the recipe herself, her facial expression loosened up somewhat as she saw that it really was an easy recipe.

"Yes I suppose that we can."

With permission from his child ward Alfred began to work on the batter, getting the frying pan hot and ready to cook up some crepes. It was surprising how many crepes one small bowl of batter could actually make. By the time the batter was scrapped to make the last crepe he had a whole stack of them just waiting to be eaten on the plate on the table.

"Huh, not too bad huh? Only a few are burnt too!"

"You did well ."

"Why thank you Martha!"

He laughed lightly and set out the crepes, with that light and fluffy breakfast their day started. It was hard for Alfred to keep inside, he was so restless but the storm was so bad that they couldn't even go outside to sled and so he was stuck inside of the house with Martha. He did his best to keep them both entertained though with plenty of board games, video games and long cooking sessions for lunch and dinner, he made sure that they had something to do pretty much every second of the day. By the time that night came (even though they could hardly tell from the snow) Martha looked exhausted from the day, so Alfred knew he had done a good job.

"Good night Martha!"

"Good….Good night …Tomorrow perhaps I can read?"

"Nah, don't you worry, I have plenty more tricks up my sleeve for snow days!"

When she trudged away Alfred set about to cleaning the living room, putting wood into the stove and just generally making sure the old house was neat and tidy.

"There...that wasn't too bad for a snow day!"

He creaked his shoulders a bit, getting them to pop before letting out a yawn.

"Maybe tomorrow we can actually go outside, this place is so stuffy…And probably haunted."

He made himself shudder when he said that, why did his brain have to think up stuff like that?! Oh well, he had a full night of sleep to catch before tomorrow.

"I can not do this anymore !"

Alfred stiffened up just as he was about to set down his last board game that he had in stock, _Risk._

"Huh? What do you mean?"

He looked over at her as the small kid took a deep breath and finally began.

"I mean that when I came here I hoped to get some peace and quiet, I hoped to get away from the loudness of the orphanage but here I must do things all the time! You ask me to do something with you every second of the day!"

"...I thought kids liked doing a lot of stuff...I mean….I didn't want you to be bored…"

"I like the quiet ! I like being able to just read by myself!"

Alfred stared at her and then back at the Risk set now in his hands, frowning a bit. He made himself smile as he shuffled it to his side.

"Oh i'm...Sorry Martha, I messed up huh?"

"Oh…..Mr. Alfred I should not have said that you are being so kind and-"

"No no, it's fine! It's...It's a free country, you can say whatever you want to. I'll leave you alone now, ok?"

With that he left the room, a bit downtrodden. People always seemed to want to be away from him and seemed to think he was way too...Annoying. Childlike. Rude….A lot of things actually. Now it seemed like his ward thought the same of him now. At least she was going away in a few weeks anyway…

Wait.

Was he really going to give up so easily?

He was America, the greatest nation in the world! Surely he could figure out a way to make this kid like him! He had to do something, and he wasn't going to stop until he fixed this!  
Yeah!

Wait…..How the heck was he going to do this? She hated it when it was loud apparently…..

"Hey Martha, there's something I want to show you."

"Mr. Alfred I'm so sorry, please don't be mad at me!"

"Dude I swear i'm not mad, just come on out!"

Alfred waited for a few seconds until the door slowly crept open and Martha's face peeked out from behind her door.

"I'm so sorry I….. why are you dressed like that?"

Outside her room Alfred looked ready to live in Alaska with a full on parka, gloves, scarf, a hat and then a thick wool blanket in his right arm.

"You'll see, but first I need you to get dressed like I am! Don't forget gloves!"

With that Alfred left a highly confused kid as he went off to make some hot chocolate for his plan. Almost as soon as he had put lids on the thermos's Martha came out in a thick coat with gloves and a hat, having also grabbed a blanket.

"Great! Now come on!"

Instead of heading to the door that led outside Alfred made a sharp turn and headed to the upstairs, leading her along. They went up another set of stairs that he usually kept locked in order to hide his "lair" as his brother dubbed it. It was a small porch set out on the roof that could let you look out on the entire countryside that his house was set in, right now his porch was covered in snow but thankfully the snow had slowed down enough to where they could see and not be blinded. Good thing too, he hadn't checked the outside before doing this so it would have sucked to get all dressed up only to not see anything….

"I…..I did not know that this existed!"

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome isn't it?"

Martha nodded with an honestly wide smile and Alfred could have jumped if that hadn't meant his instant, icy death.

"So you like it?!"

"Yes, of course! It is so….Calm up here, quiet...It's wonderful."

"Well we are going to hang out up here for a little while, ok? Maybe we can see the stars when it gets darker."

"Thank you ."

"You're welcome Martha."

With that Alfred just shut up, and sipped hot chocolate with Martha. He didn't speak for the entire hour that they were out there, instead he just looked at the countryside and traced the constellations. It was just them the wind, snow and stars. He had to admit, it was pretty great.

"You can do it! Just go!"

"No I can't!"

"Dude it's not that bad, trust me! I've done this millions of times!"

"I can't…."

Alfred sighed, running a hand over his head. After stargazing that night he had finally convinced Martha to come outside after a morning of reading by the fire. The snow had slowed down so that it was perfect for sledding and snowball fights, but he had yet to get her to go down the large hill behind his house. True it must have seemed daunting for a kid from the city, but still, he didn't think she'd be this stubborn about it!

"Dude I just went down to prove to you that it's safe!"

"You just _barely_ missed that tree stump!"

Ok so...That was true. But what was also true was the fact that the tree stump got in his way. He didn't think she'd have such a steering problem since she was so small and light.

"Nah, you'll be fine! It only _looked_ like I just barely missed that tree stump!"

"And the fence!"

That...Was also true.

"Nah it's….It's safe!"

"...I'm going inside ."

Martha began to walk inside before Alfred caught her by her coat hood.

"Hey, hey, hold your horses! What if you got some practice first?"

"Practice? You mean a smaller hill that I may sled down first?"

"In a way, yes!"

Martha seemed entirely willing to do this, and so Alfred knew she really did want to sled, so he hoped this would work. It was a long, slippery walk back down the hill and when they got to the bottom he led her inside, where she looked at him curiously as she shook the caked snow off off her boots.

"How are you going to show me in here?"

"With this!"

Alfred leaned into a closet and soon yanked out an old ironing board, he needed a new one anyway.

"...Wait... I'm not sure that this is such a good idea I mean…"

"Nah it's a great idea, trust me on this! Now come on, we have a hill to sled by the end of the day!"

Now if he was a wimp maybe he'd put some pillows or cushions at the bottom of the stairs to protect him from the bottom of the staircase and from a hospital bill, but Alfred F Jones, the United States of America was _NO_ wimp and and he was going to prove that today! He stood posed at the top of the steps, grinning at Martha as she looked on from the bottom.

"Mr. Alfred! Please don-"

"I'M COMING DOWN!"

Alfred started down the steep ancient stairs at a breakneck pace, laughing as he slid down the long staircase as Martha stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching on worriedly. He glided to a safe stop at the bottom and grinned victoriously and stood up, gesturing to the board happily.

"See? Easy!"

"You did not get hurt!"

"Yeah that's what I was telling you! Now you try!...Before you say anything i'll go down with yah!"

"...Well….."

"Come on, live a little and trust me!"

"...Ok!"

He was….Honestly shocked. It worked...His plan worked….

"O-Ok! Go on up there! I'll bring the ironing board!"

Martha hurried up the steps as he went behind her and carried up the ironing board, once up there he got her to sit in front of him while he went behind and steered. The ride was quick, but he wanted to have something to show off to the other nations, and so he took a video of the ride down his stairs, plus it'd look cool on his Tumblr.

"Here we go, best babysitter in world coming through!"

There was a whirling of stairs on his camera as he struggled to hold it straight so it could be somewhat clear.

"Oh _crap_!"

He kept the video, even when at the bottom there was a loud cracking noise from the ironing board not being able to handle that much weight and so one of the legs bent slightly.

"Oh Mr. Alfred we broke your board!"

"Ah don't worry about it, you had fun didn't you?"

"Yes! I did!"

"See, that's all that matters! Hey, want to see a trick?"

Martha simply nodded excitly, man he was on a roll! The kid looked less like Tim Burton version of a kid and more like a normal one. You know, happy! Alfred took a second to forward his video to the others, he was so awesome at this!

"Alright, here I go! I learned this trick in Hawaii!"

Alfred hurried up the stairs with the ironing board and placed it at the top before standing on it, hunching down his knees and pushed from the rail with his hand to get started.

"Wait !"

It was too late as he was starting down the stairs and everything went great!

For about three seconds.

After that three seconds the leg on the ironing board broke off, sending him tumbling down the stairs on his face instead of the board, he landed at the bottom with a decided snap in his right arm.

"OW!...Ah...Dang it….I can't….Get that...Xbox….now…."

In hindsight, maybe he should have just started her in the middle of the hill, _instead_ of trying to slide down a staircase. Then it would have saved him the driving in the snow, the waiting in the ER and then the casting of his arm. At least he got ice cream out of it, and Martha got to see an American hospital, complete with the guy that was in for alcohol poisoning and was puking his guts out in the room next to them so ehh…..That was something at least. A lesson in temperance...

They were in the ER room for a while and so Martha got a chance to read while Alfred watched TV, that is until his phone blew up with a message from Francis about what was going on, he had apparently seen his video.

{Oh that! Ok so we sled down the stairs in my room, now we're just waiting in the ER.}

"What did you tell him ?"

"Ah just that we're waiting in the ER."

Wait.

 _Francis was relaxing in his home, his own ward was off coloring, she was so easy to take care of! This meant that he had plenty of chances to check Social Media, and he was just scrolling through this when he saw a new video uploaded by Alfred, titled "boarding with my ward!"..._

 _After that video Francis felt like he was going to have a heart attack, that was such a loud crack! It sounded like a bone, or even a neck! Then, he got another text and his worry grew._

 _They were in the ER….._

"MON ENFANT!"

Jeez Francis was such a worrying parent, after the text Francis came to pick Martha up a little sooner than expected, but then again that was ok since Alfred couldn't do much with his broken arm.

"Thank you so much for everything ."

"Ah no worries Martha, I'm just sorry that you have to go home early…"

"I am too…"

"Yeah….Well hey, here's you something for the road, Merry Christmas."

Alfred pulled out a book on colonial era paintings and handed it to her, along with a sketchbook.

"Try your hand at that stuff, since you like it so much."

"Oh...Thank you Alfred!"

Martha hugged him tightly before getting her bags and running outside to the car where Francis was waiting, the man having not gone inside probably so he wouldn't get mad at him...But hey, Alfred didn't care since at the very end Martha seemed like a normal kid. Sure it was seconds before she had to leave, but he was counting that!

Mission accomplished.


End file.
